On a gentle November evening in Astakos, Aetolia-Acarnania, the European Cinema Day was celebrated not with red carpets, but with something far more intimate: stories from the Greek countryside, voices of young people who refuse to abandon their villages, and a documentary that climbed the mountains with the ease of a heartbeat.
More than 500,000 viewers have already watched the short film “19 Years Old and Queen of the Mountains With Her Goats”, a tender portrait of Paraskevi Kakouri, a young woman from the region who chose a life few dare to imagine at nineteen — a life shaped by wind, stone, and the slow rhythm of her herd.
The documentary, available on YouTube, is simple in its structure and luminous in its honesty. Paraskevi speaks about patience, freedom, and the kind of joy that does not ask permission. She speaks with the clarity of someone who has already decided who she is.
Her message is quiet, but it carries far:
Live the life that truly belongs to you, not the one the world demands.
A Film That Honors the Hills, the Hands, and the Heritage
During the event, the documentary was screened before an audience that seemed to recognize something familiar in Paraskevi Kakouri — not necessarily her youth or her courage, but the gentle persistence of people who stay with the land.
There were speeches, messages, and moments of shared emotion. The room felt like an embrace: filmmakers, villagers, guests, all gathering to honor not just European cinema, but also the places where stories still grow in the open air. The celebration highlighted three intertwined threads:
- tradition,
- creativity,
- and the individuals who keep rural Greece alive.
And at the center of it all stood Paraskevi, a young shepherdess whose presence on screen reminds us that the countryside is never old-fashioned — it is simply honest.
Paraskevi Kakouri, the Mountain, and the Freedom Between Them
Paraskevi’s story feels like a window into a world that continues quietly behind the noise of modern life. In her village, freedom is not a slogan but a daily experience: the cold before sunrise, the goats calling her name, the mountains that lift the sky a little higher. While the title mentions only the goats, her farm also has sheep and chickens—and she tends to all her animals with the same love and care.
Her life is not romanticized. It is real, demanding, and often solitary. But she walks it with a serenity rarely seen in people twice her age. The film shows her with her herd, her smile sudden and shy, the wind teasing her hair, the vastness of her chosen home stretching behind her like an unbroken promise. This is not a story about nostalgia. It is a story about belonging.
“I am free here in the mountains. I don’t measure the time with a clock, but with the sun when it sets and when it rises, and by the sound of the animals’ bells. I don’t have much here, but I have what I need to be free and happy,” Paraskevi says in the film.
Honoring a New Generation of Guardians
The event in Astakos was more than a screening; it was a recognition of a generation that stays rooted even as the world pushes them toward cities. A generation that chooses land over trend, craft over spectacle, life over display.
In honoring Paraskevi, the organizers honored every young person who keeps the countryside breathing — who wakes early, works hard, and believes that beauty does not always require noise.
Some stories grow tall on mountains. And this one, carried by a 19-year-old shepherdess, reminds us of the quiet power of choosing a life that fits the soul.