Visible Passage

I always feel on the boat trip between the mainland and the island that I am changing — going into my other world. The island feels timeless, and it’s harshness gives me a new way of seeing.

– Director Vicky Yiannoutsos

My parents first bought me back here when I was 13. I fell in love with it. It was harsh and poor, but I felt at home.

– Vicky Yiannoutsos remembers being taken to Greece for the first time

I didn’t go shopping or buy dresses like other people. People asked why did I wear mothers patched clothes. We had poverty by the sackload. But thank God I’m content.

– An aunty of Vicky Yiannoutsos

Through the whole 40 years that they’ve lived here, those that could, sent a steady stream of money, presents and letters back to the old country.

– Director Vicky Yiannoutsos

They were very worried about us keeping our Greek culture. And the whole thing revolved around what the Greek community would think.

– A Greek woman in Aotearoa, talking about how her parents didn’t like the modern ways of Kiwi women

They went away to work hard to marry off six sisters.

– One of Vicky Yiannoutsos' aunties talks about the brothers earning dowry

The editing ... creates an interwoven structure which is the perfect mode of expressing both the theme of being caught between two worlds and the thoughts of separated family members about to see each other after many years...

– Author Russell Campbell in his 2011 book Observations: Studies in New Zealand Documentary, page 17

The film ... is a superb example of how, on the one hand, the study of a social group can be enriched by autobiography, and, on the other, a portrait of one's family can be saved from home movie self-indulgence and particularity by opening out into sociology and history. Most of all, Visible Passage captures the emotional dimension of the immigrant experience in a way which films made from the outside fail to do.

– Author Russell Campbell in his 2011 book Observations: Studies in New Zealand Documentary, page 17