Ikaria, an ancient island mentioned in Homer’s epic Iliad poem and known for its self-sufficiency and the laid-back demeanour of its inhabitants, is the subject of Little Land, a  documentary by young aspiring director Nikos Dayiandas, who received a distinction from the  WWF at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in 2013.

The documentary also earned plaudits beyond Greece, even making it to movie screens in distant Japan.

The film examines life on a remote island in the centre of the Aegean sea in the midst of Greece’s financial crisis.

According to 39-year-old Dayiandas, what motivated him to produce the film were the reports that suggested its residents have a higher than average life expectancy than other parts of the country. The New York times dubbed it  The Island Where People Forget to Die.Whether this is true or not is irrelevant to Dayiandas who claimed in an interview that “these people have a special relationship with time”.

“They seem to govern time and not the other way around as is the case in the city where we tend to measure time against everyone else,” he told the popaganda,gr website [link in Greek].

“They have the courage  to write off everything and are able to say ‘not now, later’ if they have to do something else”.

Dayiandas told  Ikariamag.gr that he made “Little Land’  after Arte-a European documentary channel- asked him to make a film about modern Greece that would steer clear of the usual stereotypes regarding the financial cris.

”I  was primarily drawn by the lack of competitiveness between the residents and  I realised that most newcomers to Ikaria were inspired by the sense of solidarity prevailing on the island,” he said.