The Cyprus Institute (CyI) student film “Kaimakli”: a documentary” has been selected for screening as part of the official selection at the Berlin Lift-Off Film Festival 2025 (https://liftoff.network/about-lift-off-global-network/#mission). This short documentary was produced by CyI students Nikandros Savvides, Despina Stavrou, Antonia Agapiou, and Evagoras Krystallis as part of the course DCH 403: Digital Innovation and Cultural Heritage, under the guidance of Associate Professor Georgios Artopoulos. It was created to fulfill the requirements of the MSc in Digital Cultural Heritage at The Cyprus Institute.

 

The documentary explores the lives and reflections of the current inhabitants of Kaimakli district of Nicosia, Cyprus, the last divided capital in Europe. Through ethnographic research methods and heritage studies, the film compiles fragmented views of the history and everyday experiences of a neighborhood that thrives despite its location by the buffer zone, to introduce us to feelings of belonging to the city’s liminal spaces by the diverse social groups and communities inhabiting it.

 

In the film, built heritage features as the commons wherein individuals exercise their everyday activities as part of a historical continuum that brings them together and makes them feel rooted in the place. Through these human stories, the film argues that assigning new values to our built heritage can help us share it and therefore safeguard it in more socially inclusive and resilient ways.