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Logline

When Alex revisits her hometown for the first time after moving abroad, she heads to a party alone in an effort to reconnect with old lovers and friends. What she finds there, however, is that she’s started fading away.

Synopsis

Lacuna is a surreal psychological thriller set over the course of one night in a gentrifying Athens. Blending naturalistic dialogue with a disorienting atmosphere, the film explores themes of alienation, memory, and the fragility of identity in our globalized world.

Alex is waiting in line for a party when she spots someone familiar -Niko- across the street. Denied free entry by the bouncer Thalia, Alex tries to talk her way in, claiming to know Jo, the DJ. Thalia reluctantly lets her in, on the condition she finds Jo to confirm.

Inside the party, Alex heads into the dancefloor where she bumps into Niko. He greets her warmly, but asks for her name. Upset, Alex runs to Lulu, an old friend, aghast that Niko doesn’t remember her name. Lulu dismisses Alex’s distress, and a shaken Alex retreats to the bathroom where she finds Jo. They hug, and Alex asks Jo to confirm her identity to the bouncer. Unsettled, Jo tells Alex that she doesn’t think that they know each other.

Before the encounter escalates, Niko enters and invites Alex inside one of the stalls. When she asks him if he remembers dating a girl named Alex, he says that he does – but speaks of her in the past tense, unsure if she’s even alive. Lulu’s voice filters in from the stall next door and Niko joins her. As Alex tries to process the events, she overhears Lulu gossiping about a girl she encountered that was upset at Niko not remembering her name.

On her way out, a foreigner in pajamas mistakes Alex for staff and asks her for help getting the music down. Alex tells him that she doesn’t know anyone inside the party – that she’s not from here. He calls the police, and Alex walks away.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Chris Piliouni — Writer/Director
Chris is a filmmaker from Athens, Greece, currently based in New York, where they are pursuing an MFA in Filmmaking at NYU’s Graduate Film Program on scholarship. They have crewed on over ten short films, writing, directing, and producing three of their own. Their work centers on genderqueer characters, and explores themes of identity, secrecy, and belonging. Chris also plays music – their mixes air bimonthly on Systems Radio, having featured on NTS and Stegi Radio among others.

Martin Boross — Producer
Martin Boross is a Junior Prima Award-winning film and theatre director, currently pursuing his MFA in Film Directing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Founder and artistic director of STEREO AKT, a progressive theater collective established in 2013, he has directed 22 original theater productions including on-stage, site-specific, opera, documentary, and participatory works. His work has been presented in over 40 cities in 13 countries in Europe and the United States. Martin started filmmaking in 2017. Since then, he has directed 5 short films; a feature length documentary; and recently premiered his debut feature film, Raw Material which received the Special Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 44th Hungarian Film Festival.

Alex Jiang — Producer
Born and raised in China, Alex Jiang is a freelance writer/director/producer. She gained her BFA degree from USC School of Cinematic Arts and is now pursuing her MFA in NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Alex’s short films have gone to multiple domestic and international festivals such as Palm Springs International ShortFest, LA Shorts, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, and Seattle International Film Festival among others. In 2023, she participated in the Shanghai International Film Festival SIFF NEXT fellowship as a directing fellow and is currently developing her feature project.

Yifan Xiao — Cinematographer
Yifan Xiao is an MFA candidate at NYU Tisch’s Graduate Film program. He has directed or served as Director of Photography on over fifteen short films, bringing additional expertise as a gaffer and colorist. His work is defined by fluid camera movement and long, emotionally charged takes, using precise mise-en-scène to evoke a sense of visual poetry. His short After the Pass screened at the Macau International Film Festival and the Beijing Queer Film Festival. His film Distant was showcased in Move Movies’ “The Parallel” exhibition, screened at the Jiangsu Youth Film Festival, and is distributed on CathayPlay.

Artemisia Reppa — Casting Director
Artemisia Reppa (b. Athens, 1993) is a multidisciplinary trans artist and casting director based in Athens. She has appeared in Earthquake (dir. Vasilis Vilaras, Onassis Stegi) and served as assistant director on Katapontismos (2024, National Theatre of Greece). As a casting director, she worked on Honeymoon (2023, dir. Alki Papastathopoulos), awarded at festivals in Switzerland and Canada, and Pigeons Are Dying When the City Is on Fire (dir. Stavros Markoulakis), screened in Ukraine, France, and Bosnia. She also contributed to Daisy Jones & the Six and Greek Salad (Amazon, 2023). Her casting work is shaped by her performance background and deep attention to identity and narrative nuance.

Pink.wav — Music Curation
Pink.wav (she/her) is a Greek DJ, architect, and artist based in Athens, exploring sound as a path to shared experience and emotional depth. She has performed alongside renowned artists at events and festivals across Greece and abroad, including Nature Loves Courage, Reworks, Qreclaim and much more. Her genre-blurring sets fuse bass, mesmerizing vocals, intricate breaks, and seductive percussions – offering a sonic reflection of human complexity. Pink.wav’s mixes have aired on platforms such as NTS, Kiosk Radio, and Komrade, and she currently hosts her own show, time: stamps, on Stegi Radio.

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Contact

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