Despo Diamantidou Movies

Penny Panayotopoulou's debut feature, Dhiskoli Apoheretismi: O Babas Mou (Hard Goodbyes: My Father), is a drama about an Athenian family coping with a death. In May 1969, ten-year old Elias (Giorgos Karayannis) is obsessed with the possibility of man landing on the moon and dreams up outrageous fantasy lives. When his father dies unexpectedly, he creates an elaborate fantasy that allows the father to stay alive in the boy's mind. His older brother and his mother have their own techniques for dealing with the tragedy. Hard Goodbyes: My Father was screened at the Locarno Film Festival, where Karayannis was awarded the Best Actor citation. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Pantelis Voulgaris wrote and directed this backstage melodrama, one of the most honored Greek films of the 1990s. The story takes place primarily at the Akropol theatre, the famous home of Greek musical revues, where the manager/producer, known as the Prince (Stavros Paravas), has just fired his drunken leading lady (Olga Damani), after finding her polluted one time too many. The Prince needs a replacement, and, in a quixotic moment, decides on Lakis Loizos (Lefteris Voyatzis), a one-time child movie star who specialized in comedy routines involving female impersonation. Lakis currently runs a casting agency, but is coaxed out of retirement and back into drag despite holding quite a large amount of bitterness toward the profession which turned its back on him years before. His act is a smashing success, which stirs up a great deal of resentment among the other actors. On the last night of the winter season, the Prince decides to stage a throwback to the days of classical Greek theater, a so-called alalum revue, a show in which anything can happen. Needless to say, Lakis' bitterness and all the other rivalries which had been building up during the season are trotted out on-stage to the bewilderment of a somewhat appalled crowd. Konstantinos Tzoumas and Despo Diamantidou co-star. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Greek filmmaker Dimitris Arvanitis directed this adaptation of the Kostas Tsarouchas book about a man accused of a series of terrible crimes which he may or may not have committed. Spyros Drossos stars as Aristidis Pangratidis, who is charged with attempting to rape an employee of a local orphanage using patterns similar to the methods employed by the notorious "Dragon of the Seih-Sou Forest." The presiding judge gathers evidence and examines the pre-trial interviews, determining that Aristidis is actually the wanted maniac, and he is put on trial for the Dragon's crimes. No one really seems to be very bothered by the extensive pressure and unethical interrogation techniques to which Aristidis is subjected, and although he continues to maintain his innocence throughout the proceedings, he is railroaded toward a guilty verdict and an appointment with the executioner in the Seih-Sou Forest. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Woody Allen's Love and Death is purportedly a satire of all things Russian, from Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky novels to Sergei Eisenstein films, but it plays more like a spin on Bob Hope's Monsieur Beaucaire. Allen plays Boris, a 19th century Russian who falls in love with his distant (and married) cousin Sonja (Diane Keaton). Pressed into service with the Russian army during the war against Napoleon, Boris accidentally becomes a hero, then goes on to win a duel against a cuckolded husband (Harold Gould). He returns to Sonja, hoping to settle down on the Steppes somewhere, but Sonja has become fired up with patriotic fervor, insisting that Boris join a plot to kill Napoleon. Intellectual in-jokes abound in Love and Death, and other gags are basic Allen one-liners; for instance, after being congratulated for his lovemaking skills, Boris replies nonchalantly, "I practice a lot when I'm alone." The pseudo-Russian ambience of Love and Death is comically enhanced by the Sergey Prokofiev compositions on the musical track. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stefania (Zoe Laskari) is incarcerated in a women's prison in this erotic exploitation feature. She is preyed upon by the lecherous lady warden, two male guards and various women who have resorted to lesbian tendencies due to their long-term sentences. Dream sequences include Stefania being raped by her step-father, a lesbian tryst, and two male guards having sex with the beautiful woman. She also is shocked to discover the prison physician is an old flame of hers. Stereotypical prison situations, characterizations and sex scenes mark this feature as little more than mild pornography. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A Greek sailor hopes to earn enough money to spend more time with his young bride in this romantic melodrama. He returns after 11 months at sea to find his grandfather has kicked her out of the house because she is pregnant and has ruined the family's name. She is taken in and cared for by the medicine woman Anastasia. When the husband learns his wife was a rape victim over eight months ago, he is ridiculed by friends and neighbors. He returns after a fling with a prostitute to help his wife deliver the baby. The beautifully photographed feature was filmed on the idyllic island of Skyros. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Johnson (Paris Alexander) is an American businessman who rents a villa by the sea in idyllic Greece for some rest and relaxation. Unknown to Johnson, he gives his money to a man who only claims to own the rented house while the real homeowners are on vacation. Johnson falls for the pretty nightclub singer Heleni (Voula Zouboulaki) before his proposed tomato juice distribution deal falls through. Johnson is fired when thieves steal his money, but Helini intervenes on his behalf when the company president arrives. They seize the opportunity to set up a much more profitable wine distribution deal in this engaging comedy of errors. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Red Lanterns takes place in the Greek port community of Piraeus. The five main characters are prostitutes, working the sailors who come to town. As we see each lady on the job, the film reveals via flashback and monologue the circumstances that brought them to their current state in life. No effort is made to condemn or proselytize; the women are what they are, and that's that. Originally released in Greece as Kokkina Phanaria, Red Lanterns was adapted by Alekos Galanos from his own stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this globally acclaimed comedy drama, eccentric, tough, and carefree Ilya (Melina Mercouri) is one of those characters who makes her mark on film history, and who made an internationally known star out of Mercouri. Ilya is a prostitute in the port of Piraeus with a definite sense of social and economic justice. The aptly named Homer (director Jules Dassin, later to marry his star) arrives in Greece, meets the irrepressible Ilya, and decides she needs more of the traditional Greek culture and less of those flamboyant emotions that are not really Greek, you see. So while he tries to play Henry Higgins, Ilya is willing to give up her usual self for two weeks. The question is, what will happen once the two weeks are over, assuming she can get through them? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi