cinematography
Arsinoi Pilou
editing
Vagelis Katsaros
Krysianna B. Papadakis
Stergios Dinopoulos
music
John Tournas

sound
Arielle Esther
production design
Loukia Limperi Oraiopoulou
costumes
Marianthi Christodoulou

cast
Hara Kyriazi (Argyro)
Pamela Oikonomaki (Anneta)
Sofia Linospori
(Anneta’s Mother in Law)
Vaso Gkougkara
(Anneta’s Grandmother)
Lefteris Tsatsis
(Argyro’s Father)
Sozos Christou (Mike)

production
Pame Ligo Collective
co-production
Pucci Productions
producers
Emily Sky Hickin
Stergios Dinopoulos
Krysianna B. Papadakis
Thanasis Michalopoulos
Arsinoi Pilou
Ishan Sanjay Deshpande
with the support of
Greek Film Centre

Set in the Greek mountain village of Tirna, Bearcave follows Argyro, a badass farmer, and her best friend Anneta, the village “it” girl and local manicurist. Once Anneta admits that she’s pregnant and planning to leave town with her lame cop boyfriend, Argyro challenges Anneta to embark on an adventure to find the mystical bear cave. Before Argyro has a chance to confess her own love, Anneta leaves for her new life in the big city. Argyro is left broken. Meanwhile, in her new home with her clingy mother-in-law, Anneta quickly realizes her destiny lies elsewhere.

Stergios Dinopoulos
2025 Arkoudotrypa
2023 Arkoudotrypa (short)
2022 Bluebird (short)

Krysianna B. Papadakis
2025 Arkoudotrypa
2023 Arkoudotrypa (short)

“Bearcave is a genre-blending love odyssey pulsating with the mountain folklore of the Balkans. It shines an original light on the lives of two young queer women in Greece, exploring their relationship through the lens of youth, light and humor, in contrast to the darkness and suffering in the lives of rural queer people that we have come to expect. This film represents a new perspective on the process and politics of filmmaking: conceived using a grassroots and collectivist approach, in harmony with the Divine Feminine and Nature. This is a homemade film, shot in the houses of our grandmothers, with a young, women-led team, by a cohort of talented emerging Greek filmmakers.” (Stergios Dinopoulos, Krysianna B. Papadakis)

Stergios Dinopoulos grew up in Athens and studied Art, Film, & Visual Studies at Harvard, where his thesis film won the prestigious Hoopes prize. He works as a director, screenwriter, and film editor and has made the shorts Bluebird (2022) and Arkoudotrypa (2023), the latter co-directed with Krysianna B. Papadakis, with whom he also made their debut feature, the new version of Arkoudotrypa, Bearcave. He has worked as an assistant film curator at The Museum of Modern Art and has spent years teaching filmmaking and storytelling to young adults and teenagers. He likes saturated colors and dancing.

Krysianna B. Papadakis is a Greek-New Zealander writer-director. Her work explores queer identity, rural transformation, and Balkan folklore with poetic and political intensity, drawing on her background in philosophy and politics studies at Harvard, and media theory at Oxford. Her debut short Arkoudotrypa won Best Film at the 2023 DISFF. Before going into film, she worked as a theater and comedy director in the UK.