PLATEIA AMERIKIS / AMERIKA SQUARE

Tattoo artist Billy and unemployed Nakos are best friends from Athens. Old bachelor Nakos is a racist, obsessed with the victim mentality, and he rages at Greece's increasing immigrant numbers. Billy, however, is in favor of foreigners coming. They meet in Amerika Square in Athens because of Syrian refugee Tarek. Mixing a kinetic visual style with ripped-from-the-headlines storytelling, Amerika Square is an unflinching look at the mass migration economy – where "borders are business."

Yannis Sakaridis is an award winning film editor who spent almost two decades in London working for companies like Warner Bros and BBC. He decided to come home to Athens where he wrote and directed his first feature film Wild Duck which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2013.

Sakaridis' Amerika Square won many international awards and selected as Greece's official Academy Award entry. He is based in Athens where he co-produces shorts, documentaries and features.