Thanasis Trouboukis explores cinema on the fluid border between fiction and documentary. His work questions memory, reality, dreams and the ambiguity between them. He is a graduate of Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains in France, as well as an alumnus of Sarajevo Talents (Pack & Pitch 2020). His short films have been selected by numerous festivals, among them Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Palm Springs International Shortfest, CPH:DOX, Hong Kong IFF, Vienna Shorts, Festival du Film Court de Villeurbanne, Filmfest Dresden ISFF, Documenta 14, Athens IFF, Drama ISFF and Thessaloniki IFF.

An aquatic epidemic breaks out in the Mediterranean Sea. In a small town, where fishermen are using dynamite illegally, the lives of its inhabitants get slowly infected.

An almost abandoned summer resort faces a sea threat; dangerous tropical fish invade from exotic seas, green algae covers the surface of the waters, schools of jellyfish are washed ashore. The phenomenon quickly escalates and the marine epidemic gets out of control. Tourist reservations are canceled and boats return with empty nets. Having no other choice, the villagers revive the illegal method of dynamite fishing. Late at night, they take their small boats out into the sea and bomb the ocean. The few fish left die instantly. As the explosions become more frequent, the crisis in the marine ecosystem deepens and the lives of locals begin to be threatened. Can a fatal fishing accident reverse the situation?

Lionfish is a Mediterranean story that explores the effects of climate change on human relationships. Sea epidemic is a recent term used by marine biologists to summarize the irreversible changes that human activity has caused to the aquatic ecosystem. At the same time, dynamite fishing is an illegal traditional fishing technique with catastrophic consequences for the underwater world. These two central axes are juxtaposed in our story, composing an original cinematic world that aims to explore the current antagonistic relationship between man and nature. Set in late summer, against the backdrop of the Mediterranean Sea, Lionfish is the collective portrait of the end of an era.