Dir.: Angeliki Aristomenopoulou, Andreas Apostolidis, 71 min., Greece/France/Ireland 2019
"Citizen Europe" is a cinematic journey into the heart of Europe, to explore the most ambitious integration experiment of our times, the Erasmus programme.
The film captures the lives of five Erasmus participants who work, study or volunteer across Europe. The young protagonists leave their hometown for the first time, to prove they can survive in a foreign environment. From France, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Ethiopia to Lithuania, Finland, Greece and Ireland, they must adapt to different cultures and mentalities. The experience of these young characters is juxtaposed with the memories of the first Europeans to take part in Erasmus, the ambitious mobility program created in 1987. Sharing photographs and amateur films, they recall what Europe was like and how the experience changed who they have become.
Set against the current European crisis, fueled by unprecedented youth unemployment and fears about refugee influx, their journeys offer a bird’s-eye view of a continent in transition and a ground level understanding of the many faces of Europe.
Leading experts offer insight to the challenges facing young Europeans, including Bulgarian political scientist Ivan Krastev (Institute of Human Sciences, Vienna), British historian Timothy Garton Ash (University of Oxford), Croatian philosopher Srećko Horvat, Greek academic Loukas Tsoukalis (University of Athens) and Monika Queisser (Head of Social Policy, OECD). Additional contributions are made by educators working for Erasmus programs across Europe.
The producer Rachel Lysaght of Underground Films will introduce the screening.
Admission is free, booking via
Eventbrite is essential.
Presented by Underground Films
Supported by EUNIC Ireland
The EUNIC Ireland cluster is composed of the Alliance Française, the Austrian Embassy, the British Council, Culture Ireland, the Goethe-Institut, the Instituto Cervantes / AECID, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the Embassy of Bulgaria, the Embassy of Greece and the Embassy of Romania / Romanian Cultural Institute.
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