I feel a deep emotion and a sweet impatience for the premiere of Giannis' film #Emerald for Ioannis Kapodistrias.
A film that went through so many difficulties, but stood tall. The Greeks of the Greek Diaspora in New York believed in it, supported it and kept the dream alive.
The world premiere at the Museum of the Moving Image, in Astoria, took place yesterday.
I couldn't be there, but my heart was there. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the premiere in Athens.
For me, this film is not just a cinematic moment. It is a vindication. It is the voice of a man who has been my companion since my childhood, who taught me what loyalty, devotion, and sacrifice mean.
I read about him, I felt him inside me like a flame that never went out.
As a politician, I participated in all the efforts of people who had knowledge and passion to promote and justify this great Greek and his work!
But I still carry the bitterness I felt seeing how often his work was sidelined or distorted, while other peoples – the Swiss, the French, the Russians – honor him with gratitude.
This sense of injustice prompted me when I entered Parliament as an MP for Corfu, and I noticed that there was no bust of him anywhere.
I then persistently asked the President, Mrs. Psarouda-Benaki, to finally honor the Corfiot, our First Governor of free Greece!
And she, to her credit, did it. Even if it was late, Kapodistrias took the place he deserves in the Greek Parliament.
Because Kapodistrias was not just a politician. He was a man who sacrificed everything, even his own life, so that Greece could stand tall, proud, autonomous, self-sufficient, and truly free.
He dreamed of a homeland without foreign bonds, with schools and hospitals, with justice, with cultivated land and a united people.
And yet, the greatest wound, I would say shame, is that this man was murdered by Greeks. Of course, with the backing of foreign powers that did not want an independent Greece.
With his death we lost a unique opportunity.
If he had had time to complete his work, today we would be living in a different country. Just as he had dreamed of.
And now, in front of this film, I can't help but wonder.
Are the same mistakes still holding us back today?
Individual interest over the public?
Smallness over vision?
Discord over unity?
The story of Kapodistrias is not a chapter of the past.
It's a mirror.
It reminds us that Greece can only move forward when we put "we" above "me."
I hope this film touches souls, inspires, illuminates the truth, and awakens within us that part that still believes in a Greece that can and deserves to stand in the light.
