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Still think what your future lies with filmmaking? Think again.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Thirteen years after abandoning rural Greece for a career in graphic design, Spiridoula Lakka finds herself in the last place she expected to end up -- watering a patch of lettuce and herbs in her sleepy village.

    As Greece sank into its worst economic crisis since World War Two, Lakka had already given up her dream of becoming a web designer. Even waitressing seemed impossible. She faced a simple choice: be stranded without money in Athens, or return to the geriatric village where she grew up plotting to escape.

    At age 32, Lakka, an office clerk who also juggled odd jobs, joined a growing number of Greeks returning to the countryside in the hope of living off the land. It's a reversal of the journey their parents and grandparents made in the 1960s and '70s.

    Data is scarce on how many people have made the trek, but as people angered by austerity head to the polls on June 17, anecdotal evidence and interviews with officials suggest the trend is gaining momentum. In a survey of nearly 1,300 Greeks by Kapa Research in March, over 68 percent said they had considered moving to the countryside, with most citing cheaper and higher quality life. Most expected to move permanently.

    "A year ago, I couldn't imagine myself holding a garden hose, or doing any farming,» said Lakka, as she watered the herbs she grows in the village of Konitsa, which nestles among snow-capped peaks near the Albanian border.

    "I've always wanted to leave the village. I never imagined I would actually spend my whole life here."

    Her experience has been far from idyllic. The arrival of young, city-dwelling Greeks is being watched with a mix of pity and hope by those who never left.

    "Those who have returned are desperate. They aren't coming back because they wanted to,» said Stefanou Vaggelis, a 50-year-old distillery owner as he threw back tsipouro -- a strong spirit favored by locals - with friends in the village center dotted with tavernas.

    This summer, judging from the queries he has received from city-dwellers on vacation, Vaggelis predicts as many as 60 people will move to Konitsa, where over half of the population of about 3,000 is aged 60 or over.

    Read the rest at http://ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite6_1_08/06/2012_445966

  • 18 Replies sorted by
  • ZekoZeko

    Maybe there is future in shooting documentaries about people moving to the countryside... till the TV channels and film industry collapses, but at least we'll have learned stuff about growing our own food by then :). (Ok, sounds cynical, but if the whole system doesn't collapse, I think there'll be more than plenty of space of entertainment as more and more people will be ready to pay for a movie that helps them escape their sad reality for a short while. That's how Musicals got so popular during the great recession, they were preposterous shows, displaying so much wealth and technical know-how, just like now we see more and more super-high-special-effects-3D movies).

  • brianlucebrianluce

    Living in the Greek countryside working a small farm doesn't sound half bad.

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    Sounds great in theory. Trouble is, people tend to base their expectations on what they know, so they think it will be like their current situation but transplanted into a new rural area. I loved living in the countryside, but I moved away from it to somewhere a bit more urban. My experience of rural life is that you quickly stop noticing the scenery and once that happens, you realise you start to envy the things city-dwellers take for granted: nearby shops, good local facilities (schools, public spaces, doctors etc), fast Internet access, cheap public transport, well-maintained roads, and cultural activities. And personally I don't know the first thing about growing food, but I imagine if things got really tough, there there would be people out there who would realise it's easier to steal it than to produce it yourself. My memory of doing a bit of casual work on farms, is that it's long hours and hard work.

  • Greek_m43Greek_m43

    Working in the Greek (well Cretan) countryside was amazing. I did it for a year where my grandma grew up and all my family still lives.

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    Sounds good! I guess I should have added that I was talking about living in a rural part of England, where it seems to be always raining!

  • RamboRambo

    Fortune favors the bold :-)

  • brianlucebrianluce

    Any chance of getting a Personal View Group Buy on some Greek farm land? Come on V, hook us up!

  • ZekoZeko

    In mainland Europe and UK, city-dwellers think of the countryside as being more healthy, but it's not. There's less car-pollution, but more pesticides. And on the countryside, you often have to rely on a car to move around, which results in less physical activity. (on average). I live in a city and i can walk to most places in less than one hour.

    Of course, i wish i could live on the countryside and wake up every morning to a nice prairie with some woods in the background, instead of brick walls. But yea... it's more of an illusion. (Depends which part of the city one lives too, mine i rather quiet except for airplaines, and boyscouts on sunday.... others tend to live next to a 3x3 boulevard with trafic jams 6 hours a day, or next to a place used by street prostitution, which attracts rather unpleasant people at night.... i can understand that these people prefer the countryside, even if it smells like cow poop. :)

  • CRFilmsCRFilms

    My dad's a mechanic. I grew up around cars, helping him out and can do some wrenching myself, though not to his level. I HATE IT. I hate manual labor. It SUCKS.

    Try pulling an engine out of a car using a come along or chain hoist. Try taking off a tire from a wheel using just a rubber mallet and a couple of long screw drivers. I just fixed my car that was up on blocks for almost a year. I had to completely take off the intake manifold and lots of stuff to get at it. Three days later, I got it all back together...and then the fuel pump failed from sitting so long. That's another 100 bucks and 10hrs of labor....or take it to the dealer or shop and have them do it for $500-700.

    I'm doing it myself with my dad's help, but on a whim I applied for a car loan at my bank and they approved and I also got approval at the dealer for 0.9%apr for a new Smart, so I just bought a new Smart Fortwo. First new car in 12 years. When I'm done fixing my old car, I'll just try and sell it, and I'll just keep the new one. That's it. I'm done with manual labor.

  • pvjamespvjames

    Living simple or simplifying your living is a good thing. It doesn't mean we all have to move to the countryside but for me personally, i am really at a new place of appreciating nature and rural settings. I can partially thank filmmaking for getting me out of the urban areas.

    @Mark_the_Harp: Thanks for the perspective.

  • ahblezaahbleza

    One advantage I find with filmmaking is that we get to see lots of different locations, i.e., places where people live. Filmmaking has enriched my life in so many ways. I agree with @CRFilms -- no heavy lifting in filmmaking!

    But above all, the main benefit of filmmaking is meeting interesting people, and hearing their stories. From Canadian sandwich shop owners (not my film, but funny guy) to Rabbis, there are a million different stories.

    Finally, there is one more advantage why I am happy I chose to be a filmmaker, but rather than tell you, I will show you. Here's footage I shot yesterday.... :-) :-)

  • Mark_the_HarpMark_the_Harp

    @pvjames Pleasure! I hope I don't sound too down on it, just a few things niggling at the moment which has left me feeling less than positive - so I hope it didn't come across as a rant. I guess the ideal thing is to be happy wherever you live.

    @CRFilms I changed the engine in a car once. I see it as a sort of rite-of-passage thing - maybe everyone should do something like that once. But maybe JUST once!

  • brianlucebrianluce

    Crete. That's a place I fantasize about.

  • karlkarl

    @Mark_the_Harp: You don't need to relocate to rural areas for starting agriculture, just try Urban Farming.

    Last year, some trees in our urban backyard devliered no less than 250kg of fruits (apples, pears, walnuts, plums, etc.). And only 60 years ago, it was not uncommon for people here to grow potatoes in their gardens. And growing herbs is still very common.

  • RobertoRoberto

    I may just survive on my 5 acres in the bush. My neighbour has a bore for water, I'm 12 km from a big town... I could start by doing something about all the rabbits here.

  • CRFilmsCRFilms

    I appreciate the sentiment @Mark_the_Harp, but pulling an engine is a bit much for everybody to do. Though I do believe every man should be able to change a tire and their own car's oil. That should be basic common knowledge.

    To those who think farming the old fashioned way is great...if you have netflix streaming, watch TEDTalks: Chew On This, video 5 "Feeding the whole world". The speaker talks about how the industrialization of farming is one of the best things to happen to humanity and most of those poor farmers who till the soil by hand would love to have a huge combine and plow, so they could plant more crops and make money.

    EDIT: Here's the vid on Ted's website: http://www.ted.com/talks/louise_fresco_on_feeding_the_whole_world.html

  • MirrorManMirrorMan

    You can live in the countryside and make films, probably not make much money with it, but who knows... anyway this trend of moving to the countryside is really just a reversal and (frankly) a rebalancing of the massive migration trends of the 20th century to the cities away from the countryside. I know numerous people (including myself) who have moved to the countryside. I don't miss the city one bit and even feel sorry for lots of city dwellers I know who are overworked, cramped and simply don't seem to get enough fresh air.

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