My relationship with ERT's historic Paraskinio, the finest cultural series in the history of Greek television, began in a peculiar way.

As I discovered later—at the time I was not yet eight years old—it was in February 1976. It was evening (or perhaps late afternoon?), but in any case daylight had faded, when the first episode of the series began. I never learned—my father died prematurely a few years later, at the age of 53—why he had considered that series, even before it started, to be something so important.

Shortly before the programme began, my brother and I (who died even more prematurely, at the age of 29, a few years later) were playing or wrestling noisily. Our father hurried to tell us to shut up, as a very serious documentary series was about to begin.

The broadcast began almost immediately, with the distinctive sound of the musical theme composed by Vangelis Papathanassiou, which marked two generations during the 37 years that followed. Mine, of course, included.

From that moment it seems the idea of becoming a member of the Paraskinio team began to take shape, evidently unconsciously.

In January 1989, shortly after turning twenty, I made the first of my three trips to London to arrange what was necessary for my studies at the London Film School, in the directing department. On that first trip I was accompanied by my brother, seven years older than me, to help me. I was already working intensively to cover the cost of my studies, which were to begin immediately after completing my military service.

Suddenly, however, everything changed. On 31 August 1990, while I was serving in the army, my brother died by suicide.

The prospect of studying abroad came to an abrupt and definitive end. Entirely on my own now, and with the enormous help of our cat, I took care of my mother amid an already difficult relationship with her.

I attended the Stavrakos Film School in Athens, where I met Apostolia Papaioannou. A relationship that proved decisive in my life, in every respect.

Eventually, in 2000, my joining the Paraskinio team became a reality, following a recommendation from Eva Stefani. That was when the greatest door of my life—creatively and professionally—opened.

Nothing would have been the same for me if I had not become a core member of the team, essentially entering the best university I could ever have imagined. Better even than the London Film School.

At Cinetic, the company of Lakis Papastathis and Takis Chatzopoulos who created Paraskinio, as well as several other important documentary series and films, and where they welcomed and taught all of us the directors who spent the best years of our lives there, I found my true and essential family.

For someone like me, who experienced his relationship with the family into which he was born in an intensely traumatic, almost nightmarish way, Cinetic, Paraskinio, Lakis and Takis will always be my home.