02/06/2026
Published today in the Greek Australian NEOS KOSMOS. A brief about Sunday's screening in of Pantelis Voulgaris The Last Note.
"The Greek Australian Conversations (GAC) – a newly formed collective of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd–generation Greek Australians – successfully presented in front of a capacity audience, the screening of Pantelis Voulgaris’ film “The Last Note”at the Brunswick Picture House in Melbourne on Sunday.
The film was screened in view of the recent discovery of a number of historical photographic documents taken on the day of the ex*****on of 200 Greek communist patriots (May Day 1944) in the suburb of Kaisariani, Athens. These political prisoners were executed by the German N**i occupational forces in Greece during World War II, as reprisals for the death of a German Major General and three German soldiers in Molai, Laconia, in the Peloponnese on 27 April 1944, following an attack by a group Greek resistance fighters.
It is worth pointing out that the 200 executed were not guerrilla fighters who were engaged in armed resistance during the German occupation of Greece. They were political prisoners due to their ideology and activities—trade unionists, members of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), and others—imprisoned during the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas. When the Germans invaded Greece in April 1941, the Metaxas regime, instead of releasing political prisoners, they handed them over to the German occupying forces.
As with the initiative’s first official event on 22 February 2026, titled “Indigenous Sovereignty, Republic, Bondi: Where Do Greek Australians Stand?”, a subject explored by Dr George Vasilakopoulos and Ester Anatolitis, Co-Chair of the Australian Republic Movement, the majority of the participants at the screening were members of the broader Greek Australian community, as well as many people of a non–Greek background.
This GAC initiative is a network of community minded people interested in conversing on issues that relate to aspects of everyday Greek Australian life including; Greek and broader Australian identity, history, culture and values.
The aim of GAC is to create a public space, where in a respectful, inclusive and reflective manner, conversations addressing these issues will take place, from the perspective of Australians of Greek and migrant heritage, and when it comes to issues relating to Greece, from the perspective of global/diasporic Hellenism.
In a fragmented era of collective amnesia, ignorance, and misleading interpretations of Greek Australian, migrant, Australian, and diasporic issues, the objective of the Greek Australian Conversations is to deepen both our collective and our individual self–understanding of our identity, culture, history and our place in both Australia and global Hellenism.
This open initiative is ready to welcome anyone interested wishing to participate. The historical roots of those who initiated the Greek Australian Conversations, lie within the broader community of socially and politically active Greek Australians; members of a community who in the recent past publicly stated their support for marriage equality in Australia in 2017, the conviction of Golden Dawn in Greece in 2020, as a criminal organization, and the constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Nations in the 2023 Voice referendum. They also opposed the historically inaccurate statements made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in 2024, during the Ecumenical Patriarch’s visit to Australia, statements that overlooked the leading role of democratic Greek community organizations in the educational, cultural, and political life of Greek Australia and wider Australia.
For further information on the GAC initiative feel free to contact [email protected]."
