Elina Psykou Casts Trio in 'Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions,' Headed to Venice Gap-Financing Market
Greek film-maker Elina Psykou has cast Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Antonis Kafetzopoulos, and Makis Papadimitriou in her upcoming feature Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions, Variety reports. The project will head to the Venice Gap-Financing Market, a co-production platform run alongside the Venice Film Festival, from 4–6 September.
The film is described as a portrait of intergenerational trauma, set against a famous magician's visit to Athens and following three women from the same family who decide to confront their fears. It is a co-production spanning three countries: Greece (Jungle Films, Homemade Films, StudioBauhaus), the Netherlands (Studio Ruba) and Cyprus (Bark Like a Cat Films). Funding support comes from Eurimages, Creative Europe MEDIA, EKKOMED, ERT, the Netherlands Film Fund and the Deputy Ministry of Culture in Cyprus (SEKIN), according to Variety. The Council of Europe's Eurimages fund separately confirmed the project among its 2026 co-production funding recipients, listing Bark Like a Cat Films as the Cypriot producer, in July 2026.
For Psykou, the Venice market appearance continues a career that has moved between fiction and documentary. Her sophomore feature, Son of Sofia, won the best international narrative award at Tribeca in 2017. Her documentary Stray Bodies premiered at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen in 2023, Variety notes.
Stray Bodies follows women forced to cross EU borders to access medical procedures outlawed in their own countries. The film drew controversy on the festival circuit: in March 2024, riot police were deployed in Thessaloniki and protests across the city were banned ahead of its premiere at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, after far-right groups had threatened the screening, Variety reported.
The Venice Gap-Financing Market is part of the festival's Final Cut in Venice initiative, designed to help projects from around the world secure the remaining funding needed to complete production. For Patrimonial Fears and Other Illusions, the market offers a chance to close out financing on a multi-country co-production already backed by a broad coalition of European film funds.
The cast brings familiar faces to Greek audiences. Kalogeropoulou and Kafetzopoulos are veteran performers with decades of work in Greek film, theatre and television. Papadimitriou has built an international profile through festival-circuit roles, including films by directors such as Athina Rachel Tsangari and Yorgos Lanthimos.
