Mediterranean Sea, the place where three continents meet. A turbulent water frontier. An ever changing landscape, with the Aegean Sea in its core. A territory where the clash of civilizations, cultures and interests have been shaping for centuries the course of history. This is the sea of great naval powers, corsairs and pirates, the sea of trade, diplomacy and religion.

Pirates of the Aegean unfolds the story of this sea. It traces the marks left by historical figures, pirates and corsairs, who acted in the Aegean and the Mediterranean from the 15th till the 19th century.

Hayreddin Barbarossa, a pirate from the island of Mytilene became a great Admiral of the Ottoman navy and a prominent political figure. The man who constituted a savior for the Muslims and a curse for the Christians defined the fate of the North African as well as the Central and Eastern Mediterranean coasts. Lambros Katsonis, a person who found himself between two great powers of his era, the Russian and Ottoman Empire. The man who enjoyed the support of Catherine the Great was the one who declared his own war against the Sultan. Hugo de Creveliers, a 12-year-old boy from Provence seeking the thrills of piracy grew to become the ultimate terror of the Greek islands and a red flag for the Ottomans. Cooperating, at times, with local pirates and in other circumstances with the knights of Malta, his story showcases the fragile balance among the powers active in the Aegean Sea.

Impoverished populations, seeking survival through piracy. Opportunists enchanted by the life of pirates. The Holy War between Christianity and Islam. The struggle for political and financial domination among states. Aegean is the crossroads where  Greeks, Venetians, Ottomans, British, French, Dutch and Portuguese pirates and corsairs met in the pursuit of power and wealth, playing a vital role in shaping history.

Pirates of the Aegean aims to shed light on the unknown bits and pieces of  history.

The visualization of the documentary is achieved through the use of current footage,  3D graphics and dramatizations together with interviews with experts, medieval engravings, artifacts and documents.