Acharnon Street is situated in the Historic Center of Athens. Surprisingly it has been labeled a ‘ghetto’: a place that gives no entry or exit, usually found at the edge of a metropolis.
One of the oldest neighborhoods of the city, Acharnes has in recent years been degraded and therefore turned marginal to Athenian civil life.
Houses and apartments around Saint Panteleimon, the central church of the neighborhood, are occupied by immigrants who have come here with the dream of a better life, bringing their families along when they can. These people form a new category of citizens, facing fierce prejudice not only from the authorities but also from a part of society.
The degradation of Acharnon Street began after the Olympic Games of 2004; today the limits of what is legal and what is not are not easily discerned.
Yet Acharnon Street became a melting pot where brothels, institutes for drug rehabilitation, gambling houses, as well as people of all religions, ages and professions – Orthodox, Muslims, Hindus, money-lenders, old, young – try to openly co-exist.
Acharnon Street is there to narrate their stories.
