Hard Goodbyes: My Father

July, 1969. As Apollo astronauts lift off for the the moon, Elias Manolopoulos delightedly follows their progress. He's a space-minded ten-year-old in Athens who makes an oft-harsh homeworld gentler with flights of wishful imagination. Elias is closest to his father, a traveling salesman whose long business trips take their toll on the household, leaving his wife bitter and argumentative. Elias' older brother Ari seems to feel almost no connection to dad. He hardly shows emotion when he takes the phone call informing them that Mr. Manolopoulos has perished in a car wreck. Elias refuses to accept his father isn't coming home. After all, he still has the last note that papa left, the one that said he'd be back before the lunar landing… HARD GOODBYES: MY FATHER compassionately portrays a child coming to terms with an incomprehensible black hole of grief. (In Greek with English subtitles)