‘Hold Onto Me,’ Cyprus’ First Oscar Hopeful, Stars a Newcomer and a ‘Dogtooth’ Actor in a Very Personal Father-Daughter Drama

Cypriot filmmaker Myrsini Aristidou’s debut feature *Hold Onto Me* follows 11-year-old Iris as she meets her absent father, Aris, after her grandfather’s funeral. Her efforts to reconnect with him, despite his criminal schemes and unwillingness to take responsibility, gradually form a fragile bond that is threatened by his past. The film has become Cyprus’ first submission for the international feature film Oscar and won the World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance.

Newcomer Maria Petrova stars as Iris, alongside Christos Passalis, known for *Dogtooth*. The Cyprus-Denmark-Greece co-production will screen in the youth and children’s programme at the 30th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Aristidou says the story develops themes she explored in two earlier short films, drawing on her own experience of growing up with a largely absent father and aiming to portray the pair as strangers who slowly come to accept and love one another.