Kostas Hatzoudis

Thanos lives a conventional life with his family in a lakeside village in Epirus. One Carnival night, a mysterious dancer wearing a veil will shake up his everyday life. The carnival woman will take him to the "woman of the other shore," the local fairy. His exploration will take him away from his usual activities, which will provoke a reaction from both his immediate family and his wider circle. His only constant ally is Vavo, his grandmother, who is the border between the two worlds: the real and the supernatural. Thanos will follow his path to the end. His understanding of female nature and his search for the "ideal woman" will prove fatal for him.

Inspired by the real-life story of a bus hijacking in Northern Greece, HOSTAGE explores the sensitive issue of Greek-Albanian relations through a young Albanian who takes over an intercity bus. Upon hijacking the bus, he takes the seven passengers hostage and demands a ransom of half and million euro, and safe passage to his homeland of Albania. Surrounded by police, the bus trundles towards the Albanian border and the tension mounts until the final harrowing conclusion.

Two parallel stories complement each other. The first recounts the investigation of a journalist and an actress who, through a radio program, attempt to identify parallels between terrorist acts of the present and the past. The second takes us back to 1948 and describes the events that led to the murder of American journalist George Polk in Thessaloniki, guided by the investigation of the two protagonists and the testimonies of various individuals.