Touching Documentary ‘Istoria’ by Greek-Australian Wins Over Hollywood!

The feature-length documentary called Istoria, produced by Greek-Australian Nicolaos Demourtzidis has just won the prestigious Hollywood International Independent Documentary Award (2016) in the Foreign Documentary Feature Category.

The film is a touching story that revolves around a journey back to Greece, the homeland of Nicoloas’ grandfather Elias along with his son and grandson as they returns to his beloved nation for the last time to explore the life of Elias before he migrated to Australia after the Civil War. It was the last trip the trio made together as Elias had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

“The project was done with passion! Passion for our family, passion for our country, passion for people, passion for storytelling. The international stage is receiving the documentary quite well and the fact that we are gaining some credibility along the way reassures me of our hard work,” Nicolas said to neoskosmos.com.

The documentary was also done with a sense of family and as an homage to Nicoloas’ late grandfather. “My pappou was my best friend until the day he left us. He was a big storyteller and a very wise man,” Nicolaos said.

“Istoria gives an honest and emotional insight of my grandfather’s story, encouraging us all to look deeper into the eyes of those who struggle with Alzheimer’s disease,” he added.

Although Elias passed away before the documentary was completed, Nicoloas has helped preserve the legacy of his grandfather, and incidentally found himself bestowed the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Award.

“We never had the sights of Hollywood in mind when doing this documentary. We only had in mind telling a story that would inspire others to search their own story. To me, the world is a beautiful mosaic, but it’s losing its color, therefore if we can all individually keep our stories bright, we add to something that goes beyond culture into humanity, creating one beautiful portrait,” Nicolas said.