If you weren’t political in the 80’s in Turkey, you were alone. But I preferred being alone. Babelmed caught up with Turkish film maker Nuri Bilge Ceylan before the screening of his new film Climates/Iklimler was presented with a tribute by Balkan Survey director Dimitris Kerkinos at the 47th Thessaloniki Film Festival. 2006-11-29

Olympic legacy The legacy of the Olympic Games a year on has become a hot issue. The prospect of multi-million Euro stadiums and facilities slowly falling into disrepair after just a few weeks use is galling, even for the Games’ most ardent supporters. Beneath these issues, however, there are some groups of people that were directly affected by the building work that went on for the Games. A group of 50 Roma or “Gypsy” families some of whom had lived on a site in the suburb of Maroussi for over thirty years was moved on in an agreement with the local municipality in 2002 to make way for the Olympic coach park next to the main athletics complex. 2005-07-05

Creative Ego – Lucas Samaras What began when art class was the only high-school lesson Lucas Samaras understood as a Greek speaking twelve-year-old from war torn Kastoria in Northern Greece, has led him to the heights of the New York art world. Now at the age of 68, his work is the subject of a major retrospective at the National Gallery in Athens 2005-04-21