Person-centred, travel documentary with Ina Tarantou.

Ina Tarantou travels and gets a view of the "Alterlife". The exact location is not important. The journey becomes the destination and life is experienced through the eyes of the persons she meets. Stories of people whose actions manifest optimism, strength and hope. Through their "eyes" we see life, history and the beauties of our country. People who, despite the adversities, never gave up, took risks and developed new businesses, brought to light unexploited parts of the Greek landscape, and revived local products.

Further or closer to the urban centres, each story lets us in with its own beauty to another side of the Greek landscape, Greek society and Greek reality. Sometimes looking to the future, other times tracing back the deep roots of the past. It is the conveyance of the feeling of...breathlessness. Up on the castle of Skyros, on the top of Mt. Helmos counting the stars, to the playing of the philharmonic orchestras in the alleyways of Corfu at Easter, reaching down to the Cavo D'oro, walking on a tightrope over the gorge of the Aoos river in Konitsa.

Because life is even more beautiful, when you see the Alterlife!

The tribute to Mani is filled with artisans and images steeped in tradition, history, and the ingredients of life itself.

Life Differently met many remarkable people in search of life’s meaning in Mani — asking them about their lives, about the place of love and passion, and about the image of their historic homeland in their minds and hearts.

Beginning with Mrs. Mary, we spoke about the “salt of life” and her memories of her life partner. Pierro showed us the traditional process of gathering salt from the rock, how Maniots respect each other’s “rock,” and spoke of the essence and satisfaction he draws from this work — a craft he learned to love from his father.

We then made ceramics with Alexandros, who handles clay tenderly to give it the form he imagines. The trade, though not the art, of pottery is beginning to fade, he stressed. From there, Mrs. Mary gave us an introduction to local herbs, their traditions and properties, and the strength they provide.

Finally, we could not leave without visiting the house of Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor — the British writer, scholar, soldier, and philhellene — whose residence was entrusted to the Benaki Museum in 1996. Eirini Geroulanou, Chair of the Museum’s Administrative Committee, guided us through the house and conveyed her love for its striking library, from which local residents can borrow books.

Thus our journey through Mani came to a close. We met people and places rich with stories, discovered landscapes brimming with tradition, and witnessed firsthand the timelessness of stone, of the olive, of the sun — and the authenticity of the people’s emotions.

Because the journey is the destination, and life is lived through the eyes of those we meet.