Niki Vakali

Greece. A small, impoverished city-state dominated by a massive refinery—its only source of income: oil. The men, all armed, hold absolute power. Their leader, Nikos, is gravely ill and must arrange his succession. Shock spreads when he includes his protégé, Maria, among the contenders. The fate of this young woman—unaware of the most tragic part of her family’s past—will be turned upside down by the arrival of Eleni, a singer at the town’s bar.

Three separate narratives each following a love story between a foreigner and a Greek. Each story represents a different generation falling in love during a time of socioeconomic turmoil that dominates Southern Europe as a whole, only to connect as a single story in the end.

Aris, a lonely 48-year-old man, lives with a young beautiful girl who anticipates and fulfills all his desires without asking for anything in return, since she is a robot and the year is 2038. ELLi has a perfect human form, the most advanced artificial intelligence, and access to all the data of Aris in the Cloud, acting as the ideal personal assistant. Until its operational system is upgraded with Artificial Emotions - and now, feeling neglected, it demands to learn what love is.

During a severe summer heatwave, three generations of spirited women—a sprightly granddaughter, her fashionable mother, and a feisty grandmother—find themselves confined to their apartment without air-conditioning due to the granddaughter's injured leg. As the city buzzes with the uproar of a hygiene union strike, their home transforms into a funny battleground of mounting plastic. Water shortages add to their misadventures, teetering them between laughter and despair.

After a long day juggling work, social obligations, and internal pressures, a young woman confronts the quiet collapse of a life she no longer wants. Navigating an isolating routine of underpaid labor, academic disillusionment, and emotional fatigue, she finally opens up during a late-night call with her mother. As the city sleeps, she makes a quiet but radical decision to reclaim her life—by simply not going home. Heimweg is a subtle, intimate portrait of burnout, identity, and the courage to change course.