Salt of the earth: a tale of colonial Cyprus

What’s the story behind Salt, a brand-new 20-minute film premiering on Monday 12th October at the International Short Film Festival of Cyprus? In a way, it begins with the mukhtar of Inia. Back in 2021, peeved that the government’s proposed Akamas plan didn’t let the villagers put umbrellas and sunbeds on Lara beach, the mukhtar demanded that Inia should instead take over all the salt production in the area. Constantinos Nikiforou read about it in the paper and was puzzled. “I said, ‘What the hell is he talking about? What does he mean “all the salt in Lara”? Does Lara have salt?’” Nikiforou called his friend, the actor Jimmy Roussounis, who hails from nearby Arodes, and asked him about this mysterious salt. “And Jimmy says, ‘Haha… Let me tell you a story’.” The story actually begins in 1948, long before the mukhtar of Inia – in British colonial Cyprus, where Roussounis’ grandfather Demetris was arrested by the police in Arodes for stealing salt. There’s no actual salt lake near Lara beach. Instead, there’s an area of rocky ground where waves roll in from the sea, filling the crevices, then the water evaporates leaving behind a layer of salt – a much-prized commodity, not just as a condiment but especially a preservative. Salt “was a matter of survival back in the day – because there were no fridges,” points out Nikiforou. Salt was essential, the staff of life. No surprise that the word ‘salary’ comes from the Latin word for salt. The colonial government tightly controlled the salt market, not just here but throughout the empire. Gandhi famously led the Salt March in India in 1930, as a protest against the British salt monopoly. “It was illegal to collect it, or sell it,” explains 58-year-old Roussounis – a British-born Cypriot, now based in Limassol, who’s had a long career in the UK and Hollywood, including being one of the two sailors who briefly speak Cypriot in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Nikiforou, meanwhile, is a prominent figure in the local film industry, chiefly as a producer (he produced Motherwitch, which comes to cinemas at the end of this month). Roussounis told him the whole story, on that phone call in 2021 – how his war-veteran grandpa secretly collected salt, then was betrayed by a snitch and arrested by the local cop, who was Turkish Cypriot and quite sympathetic. At his trial he was even defended by Kokis Ioannides who later came tantalisingly close to becoming president of Cyprus, being Akel’s first choice for candidate in 1988 before they switched to George Vassiliou. “Jimmy said, ‘We should turn this into a movie’,” recalls Nikiforou. “And I said, ‘I’m in!’.” Five years later (or 78 years later, whichever you prefer) here’s Salt, directed by Nikiforou and starring Roussounis – who also wrote the script, with Nikolas Kouroumtzis – as his own grandfather. “It’s a true story,” he assures me. “There are no real exaggerations.” They weren’t able to include the Kokis angle – but he’s taken care to create nuanced characters, including the portrayal of the authorities. “People expect it to be like the beastly Brits and so on – but I think of it more as a bit ridiculous. The whole idea of searching for some bags of salt that he’s hidden away…” Needless to say, it’s a deeply personal project. “Not just [because of] my grandfather. I’ve always wanted to tell this specific story. “I’m from Arodes and I go there a lot, and it’s very close to my heart.” The short was filmed on location, “which was very special for me, and I found all the locations – in other words, I used up all my favours!… And we found some old houses, and we went to Lara. And we used the local donkey, Anastasia.” Roussounis is also a political person, something of a scholar when it comes to the Cyprus problem, and welcomed the chance to write of colonial times. But there’s also another reason why the project was special – in fact, that’s the movie’s trump card. Unlike most shorts with a limited budget, this one comes with a name cast. Jonny Coyne, fresh from playing Lord Janu (“the main baddie”) in Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu, plays the British police captain, while the Turkish Cypriot cop is played by George Georgiou who was previously in Game of Thrones and John Wick: Chapter 4. “I got Jonny and George in because I know them from London,” explains Roussounis. Both are fellow Cypriots (Coyne, despite his English stage name, was born in Kaimakli), both worked for free – just expenses – and both were “very excited to do it, because they’d never worked here before and they wanted to do something here”. In the end, the film isn’t just a wry rural drama (Roussounis compares it to something like Jean de Florette) but a kind of homecoming. It’s a case of three successful diaspora actors reconnecting with their roots – and one of them coming home even more specifically, crafting a testament to his own family and his beloved village. Meanwhile, in August 2023, the mukhtar of Inia’s demands were accepted, granting his fellow villagers the right to collect and exploit the local sea salt that was once such a bone of contention. But they’d still rather put umbrellas and sunbeds on Lara beach.