A stranger abroad, a stranger back home…

They called him a foreigner when, as a Greek immigrant, he chased his future in Australia. But they also called him a foreigner when, as a member of the Greek diaspora, he decided to return to his homeland. Where did Fotis Apostolopoulos truly belong? This was the question that haunted the Peloponnesian from the village of Epitalio in Ilia throughout his life. Like his father, he was a barber, but the “magnetic needle” of his “compass” soon aligned with Australia—the country that welcomed him, the country where he built a home and a family. Yet, when he made the heartfelt decision to repatriate to the Greece he loved and longed for, Fotis faced the harsh reality of being a stranger in his own homeland…