Marble Tiles

Mohammed's narration  from  Aleppo  (Syria), who composes pieces of his life history in Syria and Greece, where he came as a refugee to meet his father after seventeen years. In Greece, he reunites with his father, who teaches him the family’s traditional art of marble sculpture and mosaic.

Creative Team:

Directed by: Adamantia Moucheli

Camera: Adamantia Moucheli, Giannis Telelis

Editing by: Danai Manousaridi

Directing/Script consultant: Vassilis Loules

Director's interview

I chose this subject because I found in Muhammad, a dynamic and intelligent young man who struggles to earn his living with hard work and dignity. Through the new art that he has learned from his father, he acquired a passport of access to Greek society. The mosaic and marble sculpture art in general, is a way of survival but also a means of communication with his father and others. He seeks to leave his creative trace through this art.

The hero of my movie has been my student for a short period, while he was attending school. But the film became   the cause of a more personal and friendly relationship with him and his father as well. I entered his life and I felt the warm intimacy of sharing with all people, regardless of the "differences" that may exist. I felt admiration and interest about young’s Muhammad life history and the wonderful art he has learned so soon.

I believe that refugees are not impersonal outcasts who come from nowhere, but people who belonged to a  certain social  space,  a homeland, they have feelings, skills, and they carry a cultural capital that can be invested in the country and enrich it. They are just people like everybody and remind us of the potential as well as the precariousness of human existence. I lived the life of my hero, for a while, and i understood his feelings and dreams in an intense and deep way.