DUSTLIGHT

Short Talk with Chryssanthi Kouri (director)

Greece / 2023 / 20’06’’

BEST FICTION FILM Category

21st IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival 2024

Synopsis: At an impasse in life, Matina returns to the family home to clear out her late mother's things. As she shifts through her mother’s belongings, she’s thrown into memories, as past and present collide, and she begins to embrace her grief leading to a personal epiphany. 

Biography: Chryssanthi is a Greek director and writer. She has completed six short narrative films and also works as a TV Director/Producer. She loves to tell female-led stories about complex relationship dynamics, transformative moments, and unsettled characters seeking connection. In January 2024 she was selected by Directors UK for the 2024 Inspire Mentoring Scheme. Chryssanthi is currently developing several short and feature projects and a female ensemble TV series.

Chryssanthi Kouri, director

Vera Chandelle (author): Is it a personal story?

Chryssanth Kouri (director): Yes, the inspiration is personal. I had to clean out my mother's things when she passed away, and that was a very interesting experience and it inspired me to talk about it and find a way to experience the theme of grief in a more meditative way. I took these feelings and those experiences that it kind of brought up and created a fictional character, who is going through the same thing that I felt. 

Vera Chandelle: Тhe feelings that we get from Dustlight is beauty and lightness. Is this the way that you feel when somebody is going to the other side?

Chryssanthi Kouri: I think not, but since a couple of years have passed, it was not a recent event, so I was able to see it from a distance. Also, I always seek to find the lightness in every theme I explore, whether it is a serious one or not. I don't really like to be very gloomy and also I believe life is like that: it can be light and dark at the same time. It is a tragic-comic world sometimes, it is a funny exploration having to figure out what to do with all these things, that is why I wanted to give some lightness. I was interested in the idea that I heard from one astrophysicist that we are all coming up from the same molecules and when we die, these molecules become something else. So, in a way we are never really gone, we just became stardust. I was keen on showing this in some way.

Vera Chandelle: Do you make a parallel between the glows and the moments the main character is trying to take off all the things that are heavy in her life?

Chryssanthi Kouri: In a way, yes. It is also a film about coming home and finding that sense of belonging and connection and this is what happens to the character: sort of regresses to a time when she was younger and she started to wear clothes that she used to wear when she was a teen to claim this carelessness that she used to have in her life, but maybe not anymore. Going through that experience, helps her to get to the other side of it. 

Vera Chandelle: Does staying in her mother’s house help her release everything?

Chryssanthi Kouri: Yes, I think that grief is a transformative experience if you choose to see it like that and It can sort of bring you more positive things in time. I am for coming of age stories that are for adults, because we are coming of age every decade, not only when we are teenagers and especially when we are going through transformative life experiences. Grief can help us transform our way of seeing life and the way we are in ourselves.

Vera Chandelle: I see a lot of hope in your movie and a way to let go of the grief we are holding.

Chryssanthi Kouri: Thank you, that was my aim: to bring that hope.

Vera Chandelle: How long did it take you to make Dustlight?

Chryssanthi Kouri: It took a long time, because of Covid. We were ready to shoot it in spring of 2020, but obviously we could not and we waited a whole year, because the location was an island. It was important to shoot it in the spring, that’s why we have to wait one year for the next one, in order to have these seasonal elements we wanted, since they are very important for the film aesthetics.

Vera Chandelle: There is a lot of natural light in the film and it is connected to the title of the movie. 

Chryssanthi Kouri: Yes, the title is a made-up word, because I kind of wanted to describe the dust we see in the rise of life, and that this dust is material things, molecules: it is not just dust.

Authror's view (Kaloyan Vasilev):

Set in Greece, the go-to destination for emotional healing, Dustlight by Chryssanthi Kouri is a moving film which tells a simple yet profoundly beautiful story. Both tragic and uplifting, it is a piece which  anyone who has experienced loss will be able to relate to deeply.

The film’s strength lies in its simplicity. With the exception of a brief interaction with a waitress, only one character, Matina, is shown on screen, Dustlight explores a wide range of themes related to the loss of a loved one with a sense of quiet grace. The limited dialogue allows us to focus on Matina’s emotions and how she copes with them, all while contemplating the film’s poetic beauty accompanied by astonishing Greek landscapes.

As Kouri herself has shared, “Grief is a transformative experience,” and the film enables us to live it in a meditative way through the beautiful shots and just the right amount of dialogue. Despite the sad events, Dustlight is a message of hope, showing us that no ending is truly final. The work may can serve motivation for those going through what Matina experiences.