Danae Stylianou’s documentary “Echoes of Cyprus” premieres on Monday, September 28, at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre, presented by the Press and Information Office as part of the 2026 Nicosia International Festival.
The film is built on research by ethnomusicologist Nicoletta Demetriou into a sound archive recorded in Cyprus 73 years ago.
In the summer of 1953, Greek-American philologist James A. Notopoulos and Dimitrios Petropoulos, a researcher at the Academy of Athens’ Folklore Research Centre, travelled the island with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, capturing more than eight hours of traditional songs, oral poetry, tsiattista verse duels and instrumental music — a record of Cypriot society as it sounded at the time.
Demetriou has since retraced their route, working to bring that material back into focus. The film pairs the original recordings with pages from the two researchers’ diaries and a wider audiovisual archive, tracing a path through Cypriot music, memory and history.
Rather than treat the archive as a closed chapter, the film frames it as a living “echo” still speaking to the present: the voices and sounds captured in 1953 return to contemporary Cyprus, linking different eras and the communities that keep the island’s musical and oral traditions alive today.
Actors, musicians and contemporary voices carry the narration, setting up a dialogue between the archival material and the present. The old recordings become more than documents of another era — they open up a new reading of Cypriot music, oral tradition and collective memory.
The screening will have English subtitles and will be followed by a reception.
Credits
Director: Danae Stylianou
Starring: Nicoletta Demetriou, Diomedes Koufteros, Konstantinos Alkiviadis, Giorgos Evagorou
Also featuring: Andreas Christakkos, Giorgos Galinis, Michalis Erotokritou, Stelios Papamichael, Simeon Merkouris, Petros Raftis, Kosmas Economou, Christoforos Koutsakos
Producers: Danae Stylianou, Marios Stylianou
Screenplay: Nicoletta Demetriou, Stavros Pampallis, Danae Stylianou
Cinematography: Nikolas Stylianou
Production design: Sossee Eskidjian
Costume design: Lakis Genethlis
Editing: Danae Stylianou
Sound design and mixing: Christos Kyriakoullis
Sound recording: Marios Minas
Where and when
Nicosia Municipal Theatre, Monday, September 28, 7pm. Free entry, reservation required via more.com or at the theatre box office.
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