The journey and the sacrifice

Odyssey, tragedy, deadlock. The three words that sum up each of the chapters in Nikos Pilos's 17-minute black-and-white documentary trilogy "Dying for Europe," which makes its Greek debut at the ongoing Thessaloniki festival, have been routinely used by international media to describe Europe's refugee crisis.

However, there is nothing cliche about the crisis itself. And this powerful and emotive film lays bare the harrowing reality of displacement in a way that inevitably makes the mind cling to the project title's eerie, literal interpretation. When the boat carrying Youssef Hamo and his family sinks off the eastern Aegean island of Kos, the 56-year-old Syrian refugee has to grapple with the loss of his wife, son and daughter, while another son is missing.

Shot over a period of eight months, the short chronicles the perilous journey of the wretched masses, the tragedy...