World premiere
Smaragda - I Got Thick Skin and I Can't Jump
When your glow-up gets interrupted by reality biting your ass under the warm Cyprus sun.
Smaragda decides to move to the home of her recently deceased mother to take care of the guide dog she left behind. However, in a hot-blooded Cyprian tourist city, Smaragda finds plenty of alternatives to grieving at home. Her chocolate-sweet eyes and time-sculpted femininity titillates males at work, on the way home, and on dance floors sticky with spilt cocktails.
Is a single and childless middle-aged woman at best a phenomenon that unveils itself for one night, only to then disappear into the role of an unnoticed caregiver during the day? This thought does not sit well with Smaragda as a former children’s programme host. But the hope to again reach the TV screen tends to be buried by reality – instead of trying to catch stardust, she must earn a living babysitting children in a playroom.
Against her expectations, Smaragda has ended up in a serving role in lives that fit the societal timeline with their family models and success. However, this does not dishearten a woman who knows how to enjoy smoking, sex, friends, and the power of newly discovered social media.
Elise Jagomägi
Emilios Avraam (1982) is a director, screenwriter, and editor from Cyprus. He holds a degree in audiovisual communication from the Frederick University of Technology in Cyprus and a degree in media technology from Thames Valley University in London. He is also an alumnus of the First Films First training programme, the Torino Film Lab, and the Prague Midpoint Institute. Emilios Avraam has worked as an editor and visual effects artist on acclaimed film projects, both abroad and in his home country and has also created numerous music videos. He made his directorial debut in 2016 with the neo-noir short film “Bad Habits”, which was featured in the official selections of 26 festivals, winning eight awards. His film “Rearrangement”, completed two years later, was also screened in the PÖFF Shorts competition.
Rearrangement (PÖFF 2018, short), The Shape of Things to Come (2020, short), Bad Habits (2016, short), Smaragda - I Got Thick Skin and I Can't Jump (2024)