15th AOAFF powered by DEI & the Museum of Cycladic Art present "MAMMA ROMA" by Pier Paolo Pasolini
The 15th Athens Open Air Film Festival powered by DEI is delighted to continue the collaboration it began during the 30th Athens International Film Festival with the Museum of Cycladic Art. On Tuesday, July 29, at Parko Eleftherias, they are organizing a Cycladic Screening as part of the exhibition Marlene Dumas. Cycladic Blues, featuring a screening of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s masterpiece "Mamma Roma", selected by Marlene Dumas as a source of her inspiration. Free admission.
Cycladic Screening as part of the exhibition Marlene Dumas. Cycladic Blues
Tuesday, July 29, 2025, Parko Eleftherias
21:30 | FREE ADMISSION
Marlene Dumas maintains a steady interest in cinema and its potential as a medium of storytelling and expression. She is particularly drawn to films that focus on intense emotional states, the representation of the human body, and social or psychological marginalization. She has referenced the influence of Italian Neorealism and Pasolini, while cinematic aesthetics—such as dramatic compositions, intense close-ups, and atmosphere—are evident in many of her works.
TUESDAY, JULY 29 | Parko Eleftherias, Vasilissis Sofias Avenue
21:30 MAMMA ROMA | Mamma Roma (1962, 106 min.)
Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Starring: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti
One year after his directorial debut with Accattone, Pasolini continues his social chronicle of the marginalized, observing a vibrant prostitute in a noisy (eternal) city and reverently narrating a Christian allegory that elevates a deity: Anna Magnani. In the story of an honest prostitute striving to secure a better future — by petty-bourgeois standards — for her son, Magnani is wholly devoted to the man she bore, rather than those who imposed themselves on her greedily and commercially.
With the camera as a keen witness to daily, tragic grandeur, Pasolini traps Mama Roma’s “brilliant dream” within the tight cinematic frames and ironically mocks the illusion of longing for escape. Escape is impossible; the shadows of Rome’s neighborhoods foreshadow the dramatic finale, and fate relentlessly and timelessly plays its own game. However, the struggle for a better life must remain the most important motivation, and in the black-and-white world of Mama Roma, the symbol of that struggle is the face of a “mother courage”. Not coincidentally, Pasolini’s next film was "The Gospel According to St. Matthew". Panos Gkenas
Introduction by the award-winning author Ersi Sotiropoulou.
About the Exhibition
Marlene Dumas. Cycladic Blues
June 5 – November 3, 2025
The Museum of Cycladic Art presents Marlene Dumas: Cycladic Blues, the first solo exhibition of the renowned artist in a Greek museum, running until November 3, 2025. Curated by internationally acclaimed curator Douglas Fogle, the exhibition features over thirty paintings and works on paper, presented in dialogue with antiquities from the Museum’s permanent collections.
Visitors will have the opportunity to see works from the last twenty years of Marlene Dumas’s practice—one of the most important artists of our time—as well as newly completed pieces. This particular selection offers viewers a representative sample of her strangely beautiful and provocative depictions of the human body, created in response to the history of figuration in art, as seen through the antiquities featured in the Museum’s permanent collections. [Read more here].
The Athens Open Air Film Festival screenings are once again refreshingly accompanied by the cinephile’s favorite beer, Fischer.
With the flavorful experience of Elite Crackers and Allatini biscuits.
With the kind support of Armani beauty.
#aoaff15
