Pavlos Fyssas

A descent into the world of mourning and loss through three homicide stories that shook Greek and European society: the cruel murders of Shahzad Luqman, Pavlos Fyssas, and Zak Kostopoulos. The grieving families of the victims converse with their absences, defend the memory of the dead, and turn their suffering into a fight for justice.

Écrasée depuis la crise financière de 2009 par une dette colossale (170 % de son produit intérieur brut), la Grèce est exsangue. Pour rester dans la zone euro, le pays a dû mettre en place un plan d’austérité sans précédent. Quand, en janvier 2015, la coalition de gauche radicale Syriza gagne les élections législatives, un immense espoir se lève parmi la population. Nouveau chef du gouvernement, Alexis Tsipras confie à Yanis Varoufakis, son ministre des Finances, la conduite à Bruxelles des délicates négociations sur la poursuite des réformes exigées par la troïka (Banque centrale européenne, Commission européenne et Fonds monétaire international). L’heure est grave : si un compromis n’est pas trouvé, la Grèce sera déclarée en faillite.

How to resist? What sort of action to adopt against Nazism, fascism and the extreme right? Can Democracy still eradicate them once and for all without bending its own principles? How to fight back? Is the solution to be given by the courts? A political blockade from all political parties? A media boycott? Raising social awareness? A better education in school? Or is it a more physical resistance? A trial all the more important than the one of Nurenberg is the backbone of this documentary.

What’s in the mind of the neo-nazi next-door? “My partner in life is a Jew, one of my sons is gay, another is an anarchist, and I am a left-wing feminist as well as a daughter of immigrants. If Golden Dawn comes to power our only problem will be which wagon they will put us on.” A journalist is delving for years into the organization of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn. The financial collapse, the political instability and the family relations are placed into the spotlight as the documentary is trying to discover “what’s in the head of Golden Dawners, who pose as victims of the system.”

Shortly after midnight on 18 September 2013, Pavlos Fyssas, a young Greek anti-fascist rapper, was murdered in Athens, in his home neighbourhood of Keratsini. Both the killer and others who participated in the attack were members of the neo-Nazi organisation Golden Dawn.Golden Dawn have committed acts of violence against migrants and political opponents ever since their formation in the 1980s, yet most of their crimes have gone unpunished as a result of silent support among the ranks of the Greek police, many of whom are aligned to their nationalist cause. Forensic Architecture was commissioned by the family of Pavlos Fyssas, and their legal representatives, to reconstruct the events of the night from the audio and video material made available to the court.

What’s in the mind of the neo-nazi next-door? “My partner in life is a Jew, one of my sons is gay, another is an anarchist, and I am a left-wing feminist as well as a daughter of immigrants. If Golden Dawn comes to power our only problem will be which wagon they will put us on.” A journalist is delving for years into the organization of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn. The financial collapse, the political instability and the family relations are placed into the spotlight as the documentary is trying to discover “what’s in the head of Golden Dawners, who pose as victims of the system.”