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Angelos Giannakopoulos "With John Malkovich in Vilnius" (in Greek Language)

Assuming that we embody something in this temporary life, we are only the sum of our encounters. Each encounter structures or deconstructs something in us. Every encounter changes the flow of things. Every encounter leaves its traces on us. Its “print of the nails”. The persons we meet in life determine our course, without always realizing it. After each encounter we do not remain the same. This change, this transformation can happen spontaneously, but it can also take years. Such absolutely fleeting, unexpected and seemingly insignificant encounters, which cumulatively shape you, which transform you without you even realizing it, are numerous in life. The author's encounters with legendary persons, such as those of Rosa Eskenazy, Thanasis Vengos or Nicolas Asimos of the Greek arts scene, with well-known international figures of the seventh art, such as those of John Malkovich and Wim Wenders, with holy persons, such as that of Saint Paisius, a beatified monk of Mount Athos, or, encounters with representatives of the political caste, such as with Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos, former President of Greece, but also other unexpected encounters that the author witnessed, form only the hard core of the narratives of this book. By each of these encounters the author takes the opportunity to describe significant historical circumstances, the social and political environment, and in general, the events of an entire era. In this way, they go beyond the framework of a purely autobiographical narrative, ultimately becoming testimonies of a specific historical context and its manifestations, with implications that touch upon this very existential self-determination of man. All of this, however, with the appropriate irony and a poisonous dose of humour that stems from the awareness that "everything flows and nothing remains".