The Garden With the Statues is a Greek television serial* of six 30-minute episodes that aired in 1981. It was based on the 1980 novel of the same name by Eleni Saranditi. Whilst at first the main purpose of the book seems to be Greek children's encouragement to love their ancient heritage, it subtly conveys quite a few messages about cultural diversity as well.

Artémis speaks in his own constructed language with Ute, a little girl from Germany. They do communicate, although he does not know any German and she does not know any Greek!

At some other point, the children describe how much they love the Roma even though their parents yell at them furiously and do not let them hang out with their minority friends. But the children won't listen. Last year, they even got upset when a young Romani girl fell off her horse and hurt herself.

"The following day the Romani people packed up, dismantled their tents and left. They were carrying Marilo in their arms. Marilo couldn't walk. They would take her to a big city with doctors and hospitals. We followed them to the main road. All of us children saw them off. Marilo smiled at us. Sweetly. And she told us it didn't hurt. But it did. What's become of her, Marilo, really? Can she walk now? I suppose she can. 'Cause she's strong and young. That's why. Do you know that Marilo has taught me how to read a palm and tell the difference between the line of life and the line of love?"


* Also: miniseries