Documentary · History

The Island: The True Story

Opposite Plaka, a beautiful village in Crete, stands Spinalonga, the island with the old Venetian fortress, the island that for decades was the mandatory place of exile for lepers. With the help of high-quality dramatizations, the stories, suffering and agonies of lepers (often referred to as "hansenists", those who suffer from "Hansen's Disease") will emerge in their attempt to secure decent living conditions. In the wake of the great television success "The Island", director Thodoris Papadoulakis is filming this dramatized documentary that was broadcast as an extra episode on Mega Channel. Doctors, sociologists, historians, people who interacted with leprosy patients, as well as cured leprosy patients who lived on Spinalonga, speak about the ancient disease, the deformities it caused, the social effects of confinement, and the struggle of those isolated on the island for better living conditions.