I recently watched Eftychia Fragou’s brilliant documentary Οι Μη Χαμένες Πατρίδες (The Unlost Homeland). The film tells the story of twelve Constantinopolitan Greeks, born in the city between the 1920s and the 1940s, who lived through the Anti-Greek Pogrom of 1955. As children or young adults in 1955, they recall the events with a haunting clarity seeped in painful memory.

“There was a palpable atmosphere in the air…. As children we would always play in the alleyways and we would see people marking the houses with red paint. They would ask us ‘Whose house is this?’ And then they’d go and mark them with a cross.” (Stavros Kaloumenos)

The interviews alone are a remarkable achievement, preserving a rich oral archive of first-hand accounts for future generations. Their immeasurable importance is even more apparent as we learn through the course of the documentary that three of the interviewees had died during the period of the film’s production.

These powerful personal testimonies, combined with rare photographs and video footage, record the historical trauma that the interviewees continue to carry as adults. Some of the events they experienced as children are so horrific that the details are not fully recounted in the film.

During the Pogrom 30 Greeks were killed including several priests, 12 women were raped, and an unknown number of men forcibly circumcised. The damage included the complete destruction of all types of Greek owned properties: 4338 businesses, 100 hotels, 27 pharmacies, 21 factories, 23 schools, 73 churches and 1000 residential properties.

The retelling of this history draws on the invaluable photographs of Dimitris Kaloumenos who documented the events and their aftermath. When martial law was decreed banning the documentation of the damages, Kaloumenos buried the film before he was arrested. The film was later smuggled to Greece on an Air France flight by journalist Sakis Karagiorgas where the photographs were published.

The rich cultural tapestry of the city is carefully woven into the narrative of the film through family photographs and histories. We become acquainted with the places of the city and its customs and traditions: the churches, schools, buildings, businesses, cultural institutions, personalities.

From the grand façade of the Great School of the Nation to the lavish interior of the Zappeion, we enter a world steeped in a history that continues to rise above the times.

The Great School of the Nation (Μεγάλη του Γένους Σχολή) still operates as a high school in the Phanar (Fener) neigbhourhood as the Phanar Greek Orthodox College. Originally established in 1454 by the Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius, the current red-brick façade dates to more recent construction between 1881 and 1883. As a result, the school has earned the nickname “the red castle” or “the red school”. Originally a boys’ school, it has been a mixed school since the closure of the Ioakeimeion girls’ school in 1988.

The Zappeion Girls’ School, located near the Agia Triada Church in Taksim Square, is still renowned for its spectacular interiors. Built with a substantial financial contribution from Constantine Zappas in 1875, the school’s namesake, it was inaugurated in 1885. Its first headmistress, Kalliope Kehagia, was a pioneering promoter of women’s education and a former headmistress of the Arsakeion in Athens.

During the 1955 Pogrom, a statue of Constantine Zappas gifted to the school in 1916 was broken into pieces. The statue remained unrepaired until 1999, and was only returned to its place at the school’s entrance in 2010.

Finally, there is the Zografeion Lyceum, (Ζωγράφειον Λύκειον), recalled with fondness by several of the interviewees long after their exile from the city. Interviews with the Director of the Zografeion, Giannis Demirzoglou, and professor Andonis Parizianos, provide insights into the social and scholarly dimensions of the school’s history and its educational mission.

Situated in the Beyoğlu district, the Zografeion was founded by the Greek community of Constantinople due to several other schools being overcapacity. It was inaugurated in 1893 and its first cohort graduated in 1899. In recognition of his significant financial contribution and commitment to education, the school was named after benefactor Christakis Zografos.

Deeply relatable, perceptive and humane, The Unlost Homeland is history as a story about people whose lives were changed by events they could neither ignore nor control. This is a film you don’t want to miss.

The documentary is dedicated to the uprooted Greeks of Constantinople, and the director’s great-grandfather Fragos Dermitzakis who died in the labour battalions.

The interviewees are Ioannis Stoupakis, Emilios Eden and his mother Anastasia Eden, Thomas Poulas, Konstantinos Portokalidis, Marina Papakonstantinou, Giannis Ntokmetzioglou, Vassilis Sidiropoulos, Panagiotis Pantelidis, Giannis Demirzoglou, Andonis Parizianos, Eleni Nioti, Stavros Kaloumenos and Nikolas Tsironis. The film features interviews with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, and political scientist Cengiz Aktar.

Warm congratulations to the director and production team on this impressive achievement!

Feature image: Girls’ School. Image from The Unlost Homeland, Film Stills.