KATERINA PARRI
After its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the new short film by one of the most influential creators of the 21st century, How to Shoot a Ghost, will be screened for the first time in Greece at the Onassis Stegi, in the presence of director Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter Eva H.D., and members of the creative team.
A haunted Athens pieced together from fragments of memory, archival material, and arresting images. Charlie Kaufman, director of the award-winning films Synecdoche, New York and Anomalisa, and Oscar-winning screenwriter of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, shot his new short film How to Shoot a Ghost in Athens, with the support of Onassis Culture.
The film, which explores mortality both as an event and as a metaphor, is the second part of a diptych following Jackals & Fireflies, written by poet Eva H.D. In the film, two ghosts who have just died roam the streets of Athens, drifting through the pulsing fabric of the city and the persistent echoes of History. In life, both were marginalized: he, a queer Lebanese translator; she, a photographer of half-Irish descent. As they wander together through the city, they find comfort in the difficult beauty of life and whatever comes after it.
Regarding the choice of Athens as the setting of the film, Charlie Kaufman explains:
“Athens is a city where the bones of History are always exposed whether through the open wounds left by the dictatorship of the 1970s or the monuments that stood when the plague wiped out so many citizens two thousand years ago. It is the ideal place to unravel the threads of past and present, and to explore how the politics and desires of the dead continue to live within us.”
How to Shoot a Ghost is a production of Unmade, Soft Focus Films and Monarch Kaleidoscope, co-produced with Green Olive Films, in collaboration with Nightjar Films and Liaison Pictures, supported by Onassis Culture and with the participation of the Athens Film Office of the City of Athens. The film stars Jessie Buckley and Josef Akiki, with cinematography by Michał Dymek and additional photography by Giorgos Koutsaliaris.
Wednesday 10 December 2025 | 20:00 | Main Stage
Film duration: 27 min
Book your ticket here.
Pre-sale opens on 19 November at 17:00.
Masterclass with Charlie Kaufman and Eva H.D.
“Moving Pictures: The Poetry of Cinema & Vice Versa”
Thursday 11 December 2025 | 15:00 – 17:00 | Main Stage
Can images be poetic? Is there narrative in a poem? How does poetry express the language of the unconscious?
On the occasion of the Greek premiere of the new short film How to Shoot a Ghost, directed by Charlie Kaufman and written by Eva H.D., with the support of Onassis Culture, the director and the writer will discuss the connection between cinema and poetry.
In this free-flowing, unconventional conversation, they will explore the cinematic nature of poetry and the poetic dimension of cinema, where the juxtaposition of images and language creates new and unexpected meanings. The masterclass will touch on topics such as art, politics, stagnation, creative inspiration and anything else that glimmers from the depths.
The masterclass will be held in English and is addressed to film professionals, film-school students and the wider public interested in cinema. Places are limited; early booking is recommended.
Book your ticket here.
Pre-sale opens on 19 November at 17:00.
