The words we use every day shape the world around us and the relationships we form with others. This insight is the driving force behind the work of classicist and philosopher Tazuko van Berkel. Day and night, she delves into Ancient Greek texts in search of concepts that reveal a fundamentally different worldview. Take, for example, ξένος (xenos), which remarkably can mean guest, host and stranger all at once. What does such a radically different understanding of a word in the past tell us about our relationship to ‘the other’ today?

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This philosophical, contemplative short documentary follows Van Berkel on her quest. By uncovering the Ancient Greek worldview behind words such as economy, friendship, desire, trust or gratitude, she invites us to question – and perhaps even let go of – our habitual ways of thinking. In doing so, this award-winning scholar shows how the study of the classics is highly relevant to the present.

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