The Sacred Way was the famous road connecting Athens to Eleusis. Ancient Greeks used to walk this 21 km path to engage in body-cleansing and spirit-awakening, as part of the initiations known as the Eleusinian Mysteries. In her debut feature, titled Sacred Way ~ 21km, Nikoleta Paraschi embarks on her own pilgrimage visiting what today, at first glance, looks just like a busy highway, like many others.
Before embarking on her first feature, the director studied Greek literature, taking seminars with Greek filmmakers such as Pantelis Voulgaris and Eva Stefani. She then moved on to study film in New York, and obtained a post-graduate degree in Culture and Documentary at the University of the Aegean, where she also directed her first student shorts. Paraschi is also producing her new doc with Maria Karagiannaki of Greek outfit Chase The Cut.
“Sacred Way ~ 21km is a road movie that aims to explore the current significance of a spiritual symbol of Ancient Greece, only to reveal the need for spirituality within our modern, everyday lives,” Paraschi explained, adding that the road was turned into a logistic and industrial hub during the 1950s. “For me, it was a personal experience, as I crossed the road everyday casually, until this book by Henry Miller fell into my hands. It speaks about the unique spiritual identity of the road. I was very surprised when I realised it was [considered] the most sacred path in the world, even though today you can’t see anything sacred there.”
She added: “I embarked on a modern-day pilgrimage and stopped at any point of interest along this ancient road because in the past, during the famous Eleusinian Mysteries, this 21 km route served as a path to purification, leading to the rituals taking place in Eleusis and acting as a bridge to connect mystics to the Earth.”
“Of course the Mysteries are now gone, and the people we met along the way who have different cultural and educational backgrounds didn’t know or knew very little about this part of history. However, what fascinated me is that they are all searching for meaning in their life, or finding different spiritual ways to handle this fast changing world,” Paraschi continued.
The feature debutant also stressed how her doc is “a story about the way we see ourselves and our past” and that “it must be told or else it will be forgotten.”
Producer Karagiannaki added: “I got involved in the project because Nikoleta [Paraschi]’s footage has been a revelation for me. I had forgotten myself the historical significance of the Sacred Way, which tells a lot about the direction we’ve given to our world. It is more and more relevant now because Eleusis is going to be Europe’s cultural capital until 2024, so the area will be under the spotlight in the artistic world.”
“Our documentary is now at editing stage. It will be finished by early summer 2024. The final cut will be about 70 minutes long, but we’re open to cut a TV version, should that be required. We’re looking for gap financing to finalise post-production, sales, TV and theatrical distribution for all territories outside of Greece, and festival premieres,” Karagiannaki underlined.
The overall budget is €45,285. One of the project’s key partners is the COVID Support Programme of the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports.
