MOTHERWITCH Trailer to Screen at Fantasia Film Festival for North American Premiere
Director Minos Papas' psychological horror film had its world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam.
MOTHERWITCH, a psychological horror film rooted in dark Cypriot folklore and directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Minos Papas, is set to screen at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 30 for its North American premiere. The film, set in 1882 Cyprus, follows a grieving painter whose attempt to resurrect her dead children instead awakens the Kalikantzari, creatures from Cypriot folklore. MOTHERWITCH had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam to sold-out screenings and has since screened at the EFM Market, Cyprus Film Days, Guadalajara IFF, Transilvania Film Festival, Mediterrane Film Festival in Malta, BIFAN, and Galway Film Fleadh. Additional screenings are planned at Croatia International Film Festival, Festival Filmes Incriveis, and Fantasy FilmFest Germany. The film is a Cyprus co-production sold internationally by B Rated International.
Logline
Eleni, a scorned painter in Cyprus in 1882, attempts to resurrect her dead children, but instead awakens the Kalikantzari creatures of Cypriot folklore. Now she must find a way to overcome her grief and anger and dispel the curse that has befallen her village.
Papas continues to offer powerful narratives as a director and cinematographer where his films move between the worlds of myth and memory, offering a perfect juxtaposition of realism and the uncanny. His work draws audiences in with empathy and knowledge, while empowering his characters to overcome all that works to destroy us. Papas' rich cinematic influences include Jennifer Kent (The Nightingale, The Babadouk), Andre Tarkovsky (Mirror, Stalker), Robert Eggers (The Witch), Goran Stolevski (You Won't Be Alone), among others.
MOTHERWITCH is a co-production collaboration Cyprus, (Caretta Films) North Macedonia (Focus Pocus), Canada and the USA, few films have such richly textured collaboration originated in Cyprus to span the globe. MOTHERWITCH is very much a love-letter to Cyprus—to its captivating beauty, its clouds wept mountains and blood-red earth, its lullabies, superstitions, and stories whispered from grandmother to child. A film born from Papas years spent listening to those who carry unspeakable grief—bereaved parents, healers, artists, veterans whose memories echo long after war. In the shadow of loss, voices who are brave enough to speak can turn pain into art for survival. Working between Los Angeles and Cyprus, he crafts atmospheric, character-driven stories that explore grief, trauma, and how we use mythology to map the inexplicable. His work has screened at Tribeca, SXSW and Sundance, and draws on folklore, psychology, and lived experience to create intimate, haunting, and emotionally resonant stories.
More information on MOTHERWITCH is available at https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2026/films/motherwitch.
Papas is also attached as a producer on TAKE ME HOME, which had its world premiere at Sundance in 2026 and went on to screen at the Berlinale in the Perspectives program and at Tribeca.
