Death Under Control

Directed by Smaragda Nitsopoulou

'Death Under Control' is a documentary about the neighborhood that was created around and nurtured by the 1st cemetery of Athens. Athenians always respected the dead and their social status was reflected in the grandeur of the epitaphs they created for their departed loved ones. The religious notions may vary over the years but the ecumenical need to remember remains the same. Throughout the years, mostly poor unskilled workers flocked to the neighborhood to work in all aspects of the funerary procession. As traditions changed and evolved, these professions gained structure and gravitas but never escaped their discomforting associations. In 'Death under control' we meet the descendants of the first workers of death. Businesses that go back for at least 4 generations with undisrupted continuity. What is considered to be a brim and macabre form to make a living, is seen under a new perspective from the stories that morticians, funerary house owners, florists, and sculptors narrate.