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ARMY OF LOVERS

ARMY OF LOVERS

LEFTERIS CHARITOS | GREECE | 2025 | 86 MIN | ENGLISH

LEFTERIS CHARITOS | GREECE | 2025 | 86 MIN | ENGLISH

Documentary

Synopsis

Army of Lovers tells the untold epic saga of the Sacred Band, an elite force of 150 pairs of male lovers who became the most formidable warriors of the ancient world. This Greek army was formed inThebes in 379 BCE to end Spartan domination. Fighting undefeated for four decades and finally annihilated at the Battle of Chaeronea. Buried on the battlefield where they fell, the 300 were forgotten by history, until a Greek archaeologist discovered the mass grave in 1880. The discovery was never made public and the grave covered up, leading some historians to claim that the Sacred Band never existed. It was only in 2019 that a missing skeleton was found in the basement of the Athens Archaeological Museum, as well as excavation logs with detailed drawings of the grave: it depicted an army of 300 men lying in pairs, their arms linked together. A team of international archaeologists and historians is re-examining the newly uncovered evidence, gaining unprecedented insight into the story of the Sacred Band. Their findings challenge us to rethink our understanding of Ancient Greece and our perceptions of heroism and masculinity across time.

Trailer

Filmmaker Bio

Lefteris Charitos is a fiction and documentary director. He studied film at the Royal College of Art in London. He is best known for the successful historical drama series Wild Bees (2019–2022) and The Witch (2023–2025). His feature documentary Dolphin Man (2017) received the IRIS Awards for Best Documentary and Best Debut Director in 2018. It was featured in several international film festivals including CPH:DOX, Tokyo, Angers, and Vancouver, and had a successful theatrical release in Greece, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Japan, and Canada. Lefteris has directed numerous documentary series for Greek television, such as Rescued-in-Time and has co-directed the series The Journey of Food and 1821. Since October 2022, he has been serving as President of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Film Academy.

Producer

Rea Apostolides, Yuri Averof, Heinrich Mayer-Moroni

Writer

Rea Apostolides, Yuri Averof, Danielle Proskar

Cinematographer

Carlos Muñoz Gómez-Quintero, Harald Staudach, Alexandros Stigas

Cast

  • Jean-Marc Barr
  • Maria Liston
  • James Romm
  • John Ma
  • Paul Cartledge
  • Reine-Marie Bérard
  • Peter Krentz
  • Thierry Lucas
  • Jennifer Ingleheart
  • Panagiotis Iossif
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