TEOS: The Lost Recipe of Dionysus

TEOS: The Lost Recipe of Dionysus brings together the rediscovery of a 2,300-year-old barley bread documented during archaeological excavations and the contemporary reproduction of ceramic vessels from ancient Teos. Following more than a recipe, the film looks at the continuity of soil, production and human memory across millennia.

During the Archaic and Hellenistic periods, Teos was a centre of production and cultural exchange in the Mediterranean world. Bread, clay and vineyards make the different faces of humanity’s relationship with nature visible as the film connects this history to the present.

At its centre is a question: how does humanity carry a culture born from the soil, and what remains of it through time? Cultural heritage is approached not merely as an object to preserve, but as a living memory sustained through practice.

Directed by Mert Ruscuklu, the film builds its research-led narrative through natural light and an observational camera. Bread, ceramics and vineyards become a visual language for the human bond with making.