As a Greek expat, I developed a peculiar long-distance relationship with my own people for many years. A relationship that had a different form while I lived in Greece, a relationship that underwent a necessary change and, ultimately, a violent transformation. It took me quite some time to realise what had happened all this time. At the same time, I experienced two great family losses. All my recent experiences could not but affect A LONG EMBRACE. My first important decision is to make the film in Greece. This way, the film becomes directly personal and honest. For many years I worked with the distancing effect as a creative tool with roots in the theories of Bertolt Brecht. This is how the peculiar humour emerged in my films, which I discovered and developed abroad. The same thing was happening initially in this script. But that changed in the latest draft. I decided to confront what touched me personally, what allowed me to love and understand poetry. Poetry, my personal experiences and the roots of my love for cinema have Greece in common as a place, language and universal perception. Another important and functional decision is that of the leading role. While in the first draft, it was a man, in the latest draft, I made a radical change and will now be a woman, a mother expecting to meet her son at regular intervals in the summer, Christmas, Easter and again in the summer. It is a character I know well, and I would like to study further in this film. A LONG EMBRACE is a film of personal moments, delicate characters and sincere intentions set aside by the violent physical distance and the imperative of time. ZOYA and ALEXANDROS are anxious to keep their love for each other alive, despite the unfair and unintentional emigrations and repeated separations, with the deep need to remain an ode to joy for each other.