Lesvia review – the rise and fall of an amazing lesbian community on Sappho’s actual island home

A fine-boned, elegantly crafted documentary, this first feature from Greek director Tzeli Hadjidimitriou tells a story at once personal and public: about the lesbian scene that grew up around the town of Eressos on the island of Lesbos (also called Lesvos). Hadjidimitriou is from the island, but not Eressos itself, which was once the home of the seventh century BC poet Sappho, whose love poetry threads through the film. Given that pedigree, lesbians, including the director herself, have flocked to Eressos for years to pay homage. By the 1970s, the growing number of queer visitors started to form not just a scene but a community, at first one centred on the nudist beach where many women camped out.

Hadjidimitriou’s still photographs are also spliced in throughout, capturing the glorious sensuality of these often naked women, most looking chuffed to bits to have found a little corner of heaven where they can be themselves. But relations with the local people were not always easy, and unsurprisingly the tourists had to contend with homophobia of varying degrees of vocalness, as well as aggressive invasion of their women-only spaces. Luckily, as one woman recalls, there were usually a few butches around to help hustle the intruders off. Over time, tolerance grew, greased by the money the visitors brought to the island, and eventually female-run bars and hotels sprang up.