Mania

Janis Rafa: "Mania is one of my very precious references that I revisit through the years. It is about a woman leaving the role of businesswoman and mother, and entering into a fictional world where the natural meets the supernatural. It is set in the National Gardens, the only park in the heart of Athens. In the film, the animals are let loose and human animality and craziness are allowed to unfold. It is also about what motherhood means, about care for children in relation to animals outside of a human-centered perspective.

"As a film from 1985 it does have all the clichés of an eighties film, but I still find it interesting how fiction and magical realism can be explored by using a realistic filter, in the direction and the cinematography. As both the director and cinematographer of the film, Panousopoulos is like an auteur character."

Mania

It is on Ascension Day that Zoe, a brilliant computer analyst, visits the National Park in the center of Athens with her daughter, Katerina. That afternoon in the park, Zoe experiences an overwhelming array of instinctive compulsions and transforms into an ancient Maenad in ecstatic frenzy, even capable of murder. Instincts and animals get loose and panic takes over.