Series of cultural and historical documentaries.

Giannis Beratis is best known for his outstanding novel "To Platy Potami" (The Wide River), a powerful literary account of the Greek-Italian War of 1940.

Born in 1904, Beratis technically belonged to Greece’s celebrated Generation of the ’30s, though he was never fully embraced by it. In fact, he is notably absent from the famous early-1960s photograph taken at Giorgos Theotokas’s home, despite being close friends with Giorgos Seferis. A cultivated man from an urban background, Beratis was never disputed as the creator of a literary masterpiece—yet remained somewhat marginalised.
In a time of intense ideological conflict, Beratis maintained a notable distance from both left and right—possibly contributing to his outsider status. He was, by many accounts, a dark, self-destructive, and solitary figure. A two-time war volunteer—in 1940 at the front, and again in 1943 with the resistance—he took great personal risks, almost as if courting death. He drank heavily, his health was poor, but he lived through two great loves.

The documentary series "Behind the Curtain" takes an investigative approach to the “Beratis phenomenon,” treating it as a journey into little-charted territory, with the hope of revealing a truly significant yet largely forgotten writer to younger generations.

The programme is divided into three parts:
Part One features Professor Eri Stavropoulou, who has delved into Beratis’s diaries and sketches a brief biographical portrait.
Part Two follows writer Sotiris Dimitriou—who has no formal link to Beratis other than a deep admiration for his work and an instinctive pull toward his story—on a journey through the wartime mountains and to the Aoos River, where Beratis experienced the events that inspired "To Platy Potami." Under similar harsh conditions, Dimitriou attempts to capture something of the spirit behind the novel and its creator.
Part Three features the elderly Anny Berati, who movingly recounts the thirty extraordinary years she spent alongside the author—years that defined her life. Throughout the programme, we also hear excerpts from Beratis’s previously unpublished diaries, shedding light on his unique voice and inner world.

Production: CINETIC
Direction – Research – Camera: Ilias Giannakakis
Editing: Dora Masklavanou
Narration from Beratis’s diaries by: Giorgos Korras