At Thessaloniki Docs in Progress 2025, Business Doc Europe took a closer look at Six Letters for a River, helmed by writer-director Markos Holevas and produced by Leonidas Liambeys. The 95-minute creative documentary delves into the themes of migration, borderlands, and human resilience. Shot in Evros, northern Greece, the film is billed as “a documentary that weaves together six decades of stories from the river Evros, where lives are shaped by its waters and the borders they mark.”
In detail, it explores the dual role of the river as both a boundary and a passage, a giver of life and a bearer of loss. The narrative includes stories from the river and its delta, where its unique environment and the borders it defines continue to shape human destinies. Through an author-driven approach and deeply personal testimonies, the film reveals the hopes, struggles, and resilience of those who call the river home or risk everything to cross it.
Director Markos Holevas explains that his connection to the Evros River dates back to 1989 when he first documented the lives of fishermen living along its banks. Decades later, he returned, inspired by the story of a Mufti who was burying anonymous victims (an Islamic scholar who interprets and issues religious rulings, not someone who typically performs burials), only to find an eerie stillness in both the landscape and its people, despite the river’s ceaseless flow. The film, structured in six chapters, all voiced by women, presents a deeply reflective and poetic journey. Shot in black and white, it seeks to capture a sense of timelessness even as its stories unfold.
Holevas is an award-winning filmmaker with a career spanning fiction, documentary, and television. Known for his innovative storytelling and visual sophistication, his body of work explores cultural, historical, and socially relevant themes. He has served as the President of the Greek Film Centre and the Director of the Hellenic Film Commission. His notable works include the documentary series The Local (2015-2016), the feature The Olympic Games in Antiquity (1999), and the fiction features Eyewitness (1994) and Sweet Dreams (1989).
The team is actively seeking co-producers to support post-production, as well as distributors and sales agents. Clips shown during the Docs in Progress session feature stunning black-and-white cinematography, creating a highly poetic and evocative atmosphere. These excerpts introduce fragments of letters from the 1960s, 1970s, 1990s, and 2010s, further immersing audiences in the film’s meditative structure.
Producer Leonidas Liambeys contextualised the significance of the river, which forms the border between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. While mainstream news often highlights Evros as a crossing point into the European Union, Liambeys stressed that it holds a much deeper historical and cultural significance. He described Six Letters for a River as “author-driven,” and capable of revealing the transformations of the region over time. He emphasised that the film is about “a past that is not over but still flows in the way people live and die.”
Holevas further explained the film’s structure, beginning with a brief introduction, followed by six distinct chapters spanning the decades 1960s and 2010s. The film will conclude with an epilogue that ties its themes together, reinforcing the river’s enduring role in shaping human lives and histories.
Budgeted at €174,844, the project still requires €87,417 to be fully funded. Currently, the budget is entirely allocated by the main producer, Liambeys, who works for the Greek outfit Long Run Productions. Now in its late production and editing stage, the documentary is set for delivery by the end of this year.
