10 years of “Tear of the Caryatid”: a film whose story has not yet ended

On September 12, 2016, the short film “The Tear of the Caryatid” was released. Ten years have passed. For the internet, that is almost an eternity. Yet today, the film, based on an essay by writer Vladimir Sidiropoulos, remains no less relevant than on the day it first appeared.

It was a small independent project, made without a large budget, without a major advertising campaign, and without any expectation of millions of views. The text was written and narrated by Vladimir Sidiropoulos, while Pavlo Onoiko served as director and cinematographer.

The film was based on Sidiropoulos’s essay of the same name — the story of the Caryatid removed from Athens in the early 19th century by Lord Elgin. One of the six sisters ended up thousands of kilometres away from the Erechtheion and today remains in the British Museum.

But from the very beginning, we wanted to tell a broader story.

This was not meant to be simply a film about archaeology, nor only about the dispute between Greece and Britain. We were interested in how works created two and a half thousand years ago can still speak to modern people. Can a stone figure make a person in the 21st century feel loss, separation and a connection to one’s homeland?

In the film, the Caryatid stops being just a museum exhibit. She becomes a living image — a woman separated from her sisters and taken away from home.

Perhaps that is precisely what allowed the film to live much longer than we imagined at the time.

25,000 views — a lot or a little?

Today, the version of the film with Greek subtitles on YouTube has around 6,900 views. The version without Greek subtitles has attracted approximately the same number. Together with views on other platforms, the total audience over the years has reached around 25,000 people.

By today’s YouTube standards, that may not sound like much. Entertainment videos can reach that figure within a few hours.

But for an independent short film on a historical and cultural subject, success can be measured in a different way.

In November 2017, “The Tear of the Caryatid” moved from computer screens to the big screen at the Alkyonis cinema in Athens. For the Greek audience, the film was shown with Greek subtitles, followed by a discussion with viewers. Athens News reported on that screening.

The story continued. Later, the films “The Northern Slope” and “The City of Theseus” were created, effectively turning the original project into a small film cycle.

When the film attracted UNESCO’s attention

In 2018, something happened that we could hardly have imagined when making the film.

“The Tear of the Caryatid” attracted the attention of representatives of the Greek section of UNESCO. The film received an honorary diploma and medal. It was later screened at the “Kamini” Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Galatsi, where the screening was accompanied by a choreographic composition set to music by Mikis Theodorakis.

Photographs from that unusual event remain in the Athens News archive: modern-day “Caryatids” are seated in the hall, watching the story of their stone sister.

A few years later, the title of the film appeared again in a different form. In 2021, Vladimir Sidiropoulos presented the book “The Tear of the Caryatid” at the Athens Book Festival in Zappeion.

Ten years later

Perhaps the easiest way to end this article would be to say that ten years have passed, and what remains is a film, a few photographs, a diploma, a medal and several tens of thousands of viewers.

But this story does not have that kind of ending.

In May 2026, the issue of the return and reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures once again appeared on the agenda of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin. The Greek side once again called for their definitive reunification.

The Greek Ministry of Culture continues to stress that the Parthenon Sculptures were not created as separate works of art, but as parts of a single architectural monument. A significant part of the surviving frieze remains in London, while another part is in Athens. Greece’s official position can be found on the special page of the Ministry of Culture dedicated to the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures.

And one of the six Caryatids of the Erechtheion still remains in the British Museum.

Her five sisters are in Athens.

That is why, ten years later, we can repeat the phrase that perhaps best describes the fate of this small film:

The film ended. The story continues.