Christina is originally from Greece, and studied film in Prague. "Trip to Venice" is her fourth film. We were curious as to why Christina, born in the 70s, chose to make a film about a Czechoslovakian couple living in the 60s. "At that time, I think that Czech people often wanted to go and visit places they thought were ideal, in this case, Venice, that were far from their lives in the Czech Republic. As I was forming the story for this film, I kept wondering and thinking of what kind of place they'd want to see, how they'd get there, what they would do, what would happen. The more I imagined it all, the clearer the idea for this story became." Christina's interest in Czechoslovakia also comes from her own personal experiences. "I had seen a lot of Czechoslovakian films from that time period, so I felt I understood a lot about their country and their way of thinking. I had also lived there, so I was very familiar with the Czechoslovakian culture, the people. So it wasn't too hard to do the necessary research for this project." Christina has an impressive record as a filmmaker: she won a Berlin scholarship from a previous project, and she also won a Greek television screenwriting contest, which eventually gave her the chance to make this film. She says she shot the road movie in one week with a crew of 16 people. Just how did she manage to pull it off? We asked Christina whether it was a struggle to film such a complex project in such a short time. "Not at all! (laughs) I pretty much planned the production for this film out by myself, then I enlisted the help of a production crew that was fantastic. They were a very collaborative group of people, and we enjoyed filming this together." We took the opportunity to ask Christina about Greek films, which don't often come to Japan. "Well, I think that a lot of films coming out of Greece recently deal with very social themes. There are some comedies and other genres, but not too many. And ever since I can remember, there have always been melodramas. I feel like I was raised watching a lot of melodramas. I think part of the problem is that there isn't the necessary surroundings in Greece to raise young creative people at the moment. And there aren't many producers with money to put into the funding of films, feature-length and short. However, there is a government-run Greek Film Centre that is helping to pull out young filmmakers' short films and back them up." Christina's film introduces her audiences to both Greece and the Czech Republic. Does she think there's a relationship or a correlation between films and nationality? "Although I'm Greek, I think that this film is essentially a Czech film. I also think that all films contain a filmmakers' way of thinking, their country's image. But I think a lot also depends on a film's theme, for example, if it's a love story, what goes on between the lovers doesn't necessarily reflect their nationalities. And sometimes, when it doesn't reflect a specific nationality, its meaning as a film in a way becomes greater."