THE COMIC-TRAGIC DIARY OF A SOLDIER IN THE GREEK ARMY

Enlistment in Th(essaloniki)va. Transfer to Chios. Then sent to Oinousses. At the eastern pin of the map. A breath away from the Greek-Turkish border. In combat positions. With loaded weapons. Ready – or so we think – to kill each other.

The journey in the land of José narrates in the first person the comic-tragic adventures of a soldier struggling to survive the endless hardships of military life: the confinement, the deprivation of flesh, the sleeplessness, the insomnia, the soldier-hungry officers, the loneliness of a dead civilian waiting stoically for his resurrection.

During his wanderings through units of modern unwanted, the khaki hero criticizes the wrongs of the army: nepotism, the bureaucratic nonsense, poor training, homophobia, sexism, the animosity towards anything that deviates from the conservative totem of the white straight Orthodox Greek. He critiques what torments soldiers and the country. What makes service a “usefully useless” experience. Useful as a collection of experiences. Useless in fulfilling its purpose.

This soldier's testimony is intended for those discharged who want to explore their past. For those recruits who want to shape their future. For those waiting outside for their return. For those, both in and out of uniform, who believe it is time to talk about how the army will stop consuming its own children.