PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Maria Komninos, head of the Greek Film Archive.
Maria Komninos, head of the Greek Film Archive, talks with us about the restoration of long-lost film, The Apaches of Athens, a landmark Greek film recently screened in the Limited Edition of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. Originally released in 1930, this is a landmark film in Greek film history, though it was lost for several decades. Komninos talks about what makes this film so important and takes us through the process that it led to its return to cinema screens. She also talks about the Greek Film Archive and comments on today’s challenges of the film preservation sector.
The Apaches of Athens: Oi Apachides ton Athinon [The Apaches of Athens] is the first screen adaptation of an operetta by Nikos Hadjiapostolou (libretto by Yannis Prineas) that premiered on 19 August 1921 to wild acclaim and remains celebrated for its revolutionary populist treatment of working-class characters – “Apaches” in this case comes from the French term for members of an underworld subculture of the period. The film takes liberties with the operetta plot while notably incorporating atmospheric scenes of daily life in Athens circa 1930.
To discover more about the festival, click here.