Celebrating Greek Cinema in Australia

On 14 October 2025 Sydney welcomes the solemnisation of 30 years of movie storytelling arsenic its dynamic Greek Australian assemblage comes unneurotic for the motorboat of the 30th Greek Film Festival of Sydney.

The Greek Film Festival of Sydney has go 1 of the astir enduring and vibrant showcases of Hellenic civilization successful Australia, displaying the richness of contemporary  Greek cinema and however it is located wrong the broader European movie and cinematic landscape. But it is besides astir taste preservation and renewal, offering the Greek diaspora successful Sydney a surviving transportation to the language, stories and rhythms of Greece.

By showcasing the enactment of internationally acclaimed directors specified arsenic Theo Angelopoulos, Pantelis Voulgaris, Costa-Gavras and Yorgos Lanthimos, the festival has so go a “cornerstone of taste look and transportation for our community”, according to Harry Danalis, President of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW.  It has besides provided a level for autarkic and emerging filmmakers from Greece and the diaspora, ensuring that audiences tin acquisition the diverseness of Greek storytelling – from humanities epics and literate adaptations to comedies, documentaries, and experimental films.

This year’s Festival besides pays tribute to the acclaimed Greek actor, screenwriter and manager Renos Haralambidis, whose distinctive performances and charismatic beingness connected surface person made him 1 of the astir recognisable and respected personalities of modern Greek cinema.

The festival volition besides see a dedicated retrospective of immoderate of the champion films from 3 decades of cinematic storytelling.

The opening nighttime volition diagnostic the epic humanities play Captain Michalis with a immense array of caller and iconic movies to travel during the festival.

Here is simply a enactment to bedewed the cinematic appetite.

The Cretan Rebellion

Captain Michalis, a almighty epic of emotion and duty, is Kostas Charalambous’ movie adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ celebrated novel, Freedom oregon Death, astir the conflict for Cretan independency against the Ottoman Empire and the interior turmoil of 1 of its starring protagonists.

Set during the 1889 Cretan Revolution, the movie centres connected Captain Michalis, a section absorption person who is seemingly conflicted betwixt his determination to combat for Crete’s state and his tendency for a Turkish girl, Emine.

Pantelis Voulgaris Retrospective 

The festival besides pays homage to the Greek manager Pantelis Voulgaris with a retrospective screening of 3 of his iconic films, Brides (2004), Little England (2013) and The Last Note (2017).

Little England, a lavish play play based connected a caller by Ioanna Karystiani and a nominee for the Best Foreign-Language Film astatine the 87th Academy Awards, is acceptable connected the starkly beauteous Greek land of Andros during World War II wherever the lives of its women are dominated by agelong periods of isolation brought connected by the lack of their seafaring men. Two sisters – the reticent Orsa and the extroverted Moshca – go entangled successful a forbidden emotion triangle.

Little England (Image credit: nikolopaido)

The noted academic, writer and movie critic, Professor Vrasidas Karalis, has praised Little England arsenic a monumental melodrama that blends nostalgia, calamity and poetic realism successful a poignant survey of frustrated desire, household calamity and the oppressive value of societal conventions, reaffirming Voulgaris’ spot successful Greek cinema.

Voulgaris’ earlier film, Brides, acceptable successful 1922 successful the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish warfare and the autumn of Smyrna, tells the communicative of 700 mail-order oregon proxy brides from Greece, Armenia, Turkey and Russia who are travelling to America by vessel to commencement caller lives with men they person ne'er met, carrying with them their bridal formal and a photograph of their hubby to be.

Amongst the ‘brides’ is Niki Douka, a young seamstress from Samothrace, who meets an American photographer, Norman Harris, connected board.  Niki has dutifully resigned herself to redeeming her impoverished family’s honour by marrying a Chicago tailor antecedently rejected by her younger sister. The code of the movie is acceptable from their archetypal gathering erstwhile Niki responds to the photographer’s query arsenic to her inheritance with a sigh: “I americium from a spot I volition ne'er spot again.”  This lament of a young Greek pistillate has astir apt been replayed a 1000 times and much implicit the decades of Greek migration, firstly to the United States and aboriginal to Australia.

As Vrasidas Karalis has noted, they were sent arsenic brides to the chartless done a “painful travel of self-oblivion” though determination was anticipation that immoderate would marque it and realise their potential.

Brides featured astatine the 2005 Greek Film Festival erstwhile audiences were virtually swept distant by the sumptuous elegance and stunning cinematography.

The Last Note is arsenic compelling, dealing with 1 of the astir important chapters of modern Greek history: the execution of 200 Greek absorption fighters by the German occupying forces connected 1^st May, 1944 successful Kaisariani, arsenic reprisal for the sidesplitting of German soldiers by the fierce Cretan Greek Resistance.

Back to Constantinople

A Touch of Spice, directed by Tassos Boulmetis, is the English subtitled mentation of the 2003 Greek film Politiki Kouzina (Cuisine of the City) and is based successful Constantinople (now Istanbul) successful 1964 during a play of civilian unrest betwixt Greeks and Turks successful Cyprus, which saw the expulsion of Greeks from the City and the confiscation of their property.

Seven-year-old Fanis and his household find it hard to accommodate to their caller beingness successful Greece. The young lad perpetually reminisces astir beingness successful Constantinople, recalling his blessed upbringing and the fond memories of being astir his grandfather, Vasilis, who owned a spice shop.

Three decades aboriginal and Fanis, present a prof of astronomy, travels backmost to Constantinople to spot his puerility neighbourhood and is reunited with is inactive there. As is his grandfather’s spice shop, albeit disused. Fanis is besides reunited with his puerility sweetheart, a Turkish miss called Saime.

Greek-Australian films

Local filmmakers are besides honoured astatine the Sydney Film Festival.

A Sydney-based auteur and award-winning filmmaker, Kostas Nikas, wrote and directed the acclaimed spiritual noir thriller Sacred Heart, which chronicles the travel of a antheral who rejects God and his religion aft the tragic decease of his large wife, and past challenges the Devil. He receives a sojourn from a clergyman who forces him to question his ain beliefs, but successful doing truthful pushes the boundaries betwixt eden and hell.

The movie has been described arsenic based connected an “unusually articulate and boldly archetypal script” by Cinephilia Magazine.

To punctuation Kostas Nikas:

The full conception of theodicy has fascinated humans for millennia. I felt I had a caller position to introduce. Additionally, the narration of religion versus the State ever intrigued maine particularly successful the ineligible implications of the sacrament of Confession.

Also screening earlier the diagnostic volition beryllium the filmmaker’s viral deed UTOPIA and the unreleased abbreviated movie Bordello.

The dystopian flick UTOPIA was voted by the Jury arsenic the Best International Narrative Short astatine the 2019 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival.

UTOPIA is the communicative of a antheral returning to his state aft decades abroad, lone to find a heartless nine wherever citizens constabulary each different with their mobile phones for the slightest offence, authoritative surveillance is omnipresent and where, successful effect, determination is much state wrong situation than extracurricular it. Desperate, but incapable to escape, the enactment of 1 brave pistillate gives him his freedom.

As the writer-director has written:

“I wanted to marque a movie for this zeitgeist; respond to the mobile telephone obsession and technological penetration which is often misused astatine the disbursal of our privacy, freedom, quality dignity and environment.”

Another section Greek Australian filmmaker is the peripatetic and irrepressible Billy Cotsis.

After an unforgettable travel crossed 8 Latin American countries, Billy Cotsis’ latest film, The Greeks of South America – oregon “Our Aegean 7 Hero Goes Latino – is acceptable to marque its satellite premiere astatine the 30th Greek Film Festival.

Shot mostly during 2024 and 2025, this 71-minute documentary captures the vibrant tone of Hellenism thriving successful South America, including Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Cuba, and Peru. Despite a shoestring budget, Cotsis’ purpose is simple: to showcase the quality of these communities and item the urgent request for connection enactment and resources, particularly successful Cuba, Colombia and Rio.

According to Cotsis, the Greeks and locals welcomed him arsenic 1 of their own, and done this movie viewers volition beryllium capable to admit however Hellenic civilization genuinely spans the globe.

Never Forget Smyrna

The memories of the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 and its aftermath are captured successful 2 classical films.

In Roza of Smyrna the enigmatic aged pistillate Rosa from Smyrna (now Izmir) and the almighty Ismael person lived for decades harbouring a well-kept secret. During the volatile 1987 Aegean situation betwixt Greece and Turkey, Dimitris, a palmy designer and avid creation collector, sets retired with the curator of the depository and his woman Rita to the memory-laden seashore of Asia Minor, searching for the cleanable centrepiece for his planned accumulation connected the civilization of the nationalities that cohabited Smyrna earlier the genocide.  He discovers an aged black-and-white photograph and a bloodstained silk Greek wedding dress, accompanied by a missive successful a tiny antique shop, from which a tragic emotion communicative unfolds.

“Rembetiko” (1983) is simply a captivating philharmonic play that portrays the beingness of Marika Ninou, a talented vocalist whose experiences reflector the turmoil of 20th-century Greece. After being forced to fly Smyrna successful 1922, Marika endures idiosyncratic calamity and rises to go a salient fig in rembetiko, a genre often referred to arsenic the Greek blues, which reflects the struggles of marginalized individuals. The movie is acceptable against the backdrop of important humanities events, including World War II and the Greek Civil War, and it delves into themes of displacement and resilience. The philharmonic people is outstanding and unsocial justifies the terms of admission.

Υπάρχω (I Exist)

Another recently-released movie is Stelios (2024), directed by Yorgos Tsemberopoulos, a compelling biographical play that chronicles the beingness of Stelios Kazantzidis, 1 of Greece’s astir revered philharmonic icons. Known for his profound power connected rebetiko Kazantzidis’s communicative is 1 of resilience, taste individuality and creator legacy.

Christos Mastoras, the vocalist from the Greek fashionable band Melisses delivers a standout show arsenic Kazantzidis, capturing the singer’s almighty voice, affectional extent and analyzable persona. Mastoras’ portrayal has been praised for its authenticity, with 1 reviewer noting his exceptional dedication to embodying the legendary singer’s dependable nuances and quality traits.

The Greek Island of Broken Figurines

For galore the sun-soaked islands of the Cyclades are conscionable made for partying and summertime hedonism.  But, an archaeological whodunnit lurks successful the inheritance and done the documentary The Enigma of Keros we tin delve into the archaeological enigma of the breached Cycladic figurines recovered connected the uninhabited land of Keros.

ERT writer Adriana Paraskevopoulou, a subordinate of the excavation squad during the play 2018-2019, has recorded the excavation carried retired connected the land by the British School of Archaeology and the University of Cambridge, nether the absorption of 1 of the world’s starring archaeologists, Lord Colin Renfrew (who sadly passed distant lone recently), and Dr. Michael Boyd successful collaboration with the Hellenic Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades and its director, Dimitris Athanasoulis.

The documentary focuses connected the islet of Dhaskalio, adjacent to Keros, which revealed a blase Early Bronze Age colony with architectural complexity rivalling that of Knossos successful Minoan Crete.

One of the cardinal mysteries explored is the find of hundreds of fragmented Cycladic figurines and marble vessels that cannot beryllium reassembled. The Cycladic figurines, typically minimalist marble sculptures of nude pistillate forms with folded arms, are iconic symbols of the Cycladic civilisation, which flourished betwixt 2800 and 2300 BCE.

However, these peculiar fragments look to person been deliberately breached elsewhere and brought to Keros implicit centuries, perchance arsenic portion of ritualistic practices, suggesting that the land of Keros is the world’s earliest known maritime sanctuary (dating backmost to the Early Bronze Age) and a ineffable tract for pan-Cycladic rituals.

The movie besides touches connected the darker past of looting, dating backmost to the 1950s and 1960s, erstwhile galore Cycladic artifacts were illegally excavated and stolen and sold connected the antiquities market.

The Enigma of Keros includes, among different things, the grounds of a Koufonisia nonmigratory who grew up connected Keros and recalls seeing a looter connected the land arsenic a child. The acclaimed UK writer Victoria Hislop pursues this taxable successful her compelling humanities fabrication novel, The Figurine, which takes the reader, arsenic with the spectator of the film, connected a travel into the spiritual and creator bosom of the Cycladic satellite of looting, archaeology and the land of breached figurines.

The Greek Weird Wave

In caller years, the Greek Film Festival has besides embraced the daring vigor of the alleged Greek Weird Wave, spotlighting directors specified arsenic Yorgos Lanthimos, famed for specified dystopian movies arsenic The Killing of the Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Poor Things and, astir recently, Bugonia, adopting a achromatic drama style, stylised frames and an existentialist absurd ambiance that entreaty to planetary movie audiences precisely for their awkwardness.

This year, arsenic a tribute to Lanthimos, the Greek Film Festival is re-screening Dogtooth (2009), a cult movie replete with paradoxical and absurdist moments of storytelling centred connected issues of control, isolation and quality behaviour.  The movie follows a household wherever the parents person deliberately confined their big children to their countryside estate, creating a fabricated world with their ain connection and rules.  As cracks statesman to look successful this controlled environment, the hostility escalates into unsettling and surreal territory.

Back to Ithaca

The Greek Film Festival volition feature The Return, adapted from Homer’s The Odyssey, which focuses connected Ralph Fiennes and Juliet Binoche portraying hauntingly long-separated lovers arsenic the large leader from the Trojan War yet returns to Ithaca, lone to find his beloved Penelope besieged by suitors who person agelong assumed that Odysseus is dead.  Tension escalates until a melodramatic confrontation leads to some closure and a caller start, highlighted by Penelope’s reflections connected unit and Odysseus’ conflict against his ain idiosyncratic demons.

The cinematography by Marias Panduru captures the quality of the Greek scenery with the movie changeable mostly connected Corfu and successful the Peloponnese.

Renos Haralambidis: A Retrospective and a Grand Finale

Renos Haralambidis, actor, screenwriter, and director, has been a originative unit successful modern Greek cinema for astir 3 decades. His groundbreaking debut, No Budget Story (1997), introduced integer realism to Greece’s movie country and earned galore accolades and awards.

This year’s festival honours his affluent filmography, presenting Cheap Smokes, The Heart of the Beast, 4 Black Suits, and the movie that launched it all, No Budget Story. The retrospective culminates successful the Sydney closing nighttime screening of his latest poetic offering, Athens Midnight Radio, connected Sunday, October 26, astatine the Palace Cinemas Moore Park.

No Budget Story (1997), the debut diagnostic by Renos Haralambidis, is present considered a landmark of autarkic Greek cinema successful the 1990s. Shot connected a shoestring budget, successful achromatic and white, with the manager himself successful the starring role, the movie follows the misadventures of a young filmmaker trying to marque a movie successful Athens with … nary budget. Beyond its autobiographical dimension, the movie is simply a refreshingly modern instrumentality connected Athenian civilization astatine the extremity of the century, combining everything from subway scenes to euphony by Tom Waits and playful winks to Robert DeNiro’s quality successful Taxi Driver (1976). “You talkin’ to me?”

In the film, nocturnal Athens is not simply a backdrop but a protagonist: telephone booths, pavements, thoroughfare corners, and makeshift lighting constitute an alternate municipality scenery that mirrors the anxieties and dreams of a generation. The city’s depiction with minimal means illustrates what Vrasidas Karalis has called “an municipality representation of representation and desire.”

Four Black Suits

The visuals unsocial of this movie are stunning.  Four gravediggers carrying connected ft from the larboard of Piraeus done the streets of Athens and the rugged Greek countryside, a dense woody coffin of a mysterious Greek expatriate who died abroad, and who wants to beryllium buried successful his village.

Haralambidis plays Makis “the Messiah”, a failed undertaker and reckless gambler.  Together with a trio of down-and-out pallbearers, erstwhile captive Kosmas, unsuccessful thespian Kyriakos and a suave alcoholic Babis, they embark connected what Makis refers to as  the “Guinness publication of satellite records for the longest locomotion successful the satellite with a coffin”.

Four Black Suits (2010) represented Greece astatine the European Academy of Cinema and won the Audience Award astatine the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival.

Haralambidis’ director’s enactment astir Four Black Suits is pointed:

We unrecorded successful a civilization that abhors death. Everything is done to hastily dispense of the deceased. But successful this film, the deceased does not privation to permission earlier making 1 past travel backmost to wherever his no-longer-beating bosom leads him: an odyssey of a dormant Odysseus embracing his Ithaca … (F)or the 4 it is simply a travel towards self-awareness and maturity. Secrets are revealed, tears shed, fears experienced, but the 4 execute idiosyncratic purification.

In Cheap Smokes arsenic the lights flicker connected a lukewarm August nighttime against a vacant Athens’ stillness, a modern bohemian flirts with a pistillate helium has conscionable met. The cleanable strangers stroll astir the city’s quiescent nighttime streets, changed by the unforgettable journey.

In his director’s note, Haralambidis writes:

Cheap Smokes is the astir autobiographical of my films. I tried to seizure the essence of a bohemian procreation of Athenians astatine the extremity of the 1990s that had moved to the margins. I tried to harvester realism with elements of neo-expressionism, the ambiance of movie noir, and elements of the cinema of mundane moments, world and fantasy, seriousness and ridiculousness. The movie went unnoticed by some critics and the public, but it has been rediscovered by the adjacent generation. It is inactive shown successful cinemas each implicit Greece, astir 20 years aft the archetypal screening.

Renos Haralambidis revisits this taxable successful his 5th diagnostic movie Athens Midnight Radio about a nocturnal vigor announcer reminiscing astir a mislaid love.

Haralambidis’ films resonate profoundly with Greek audiences by realistically portraying the lives of modern Greek men struggling with vocation and taste challenges, often infused with crisp wit and humour. His enactment captures the elemental pleasures of life, transforming fragmentation into a unified communicative of possibility.

As for his cinematic sojourn down under, Renos is looking guardant to the journey:

My films are being shown connected the large surface for the archetypal time, truthful acold from wherever they were changeable -the bosom of Athens… I’m moved to beryllium talking astir the mythical confederate hemisphere, beyond the horizon… I’ve caught myself reasoning of Sydney arsenic the ‘other broadside of the world’… thing heavy connects me… the clip has present travel for ‘the different broadside of the world’ to go the centre of my cinematic universe.

Australian movie festival goers volition beryllium richer for the acquisition arsenic the Greek Film Festival celebrates its 30th day successful style.

George Vardas is the Arts and Culture editor