Feature film
Αστέρω
Dimitrios Gaziadis · 1929
Synopsis
In a village in the Peloponnese, at the foot of Mount Chelmos, the wealthy stockbreeder Mítros brings up his son Thýmios and an orphan he has taken in, Astéro. The two young people love each other and swear fidelity, but the father refuses his son the “bastard” and promises Astéro to Stámos, another owner of flocks. Astéro, who does not know that a fortune is due to her, sacrifices herself for the one she loves.
Context
The screenplay, by Orestis Laskos and the director, starts from a text by Pavlos Nirvanas and from Ramona, the American novel by Helen Hunt Jackson, whose Indians become Greek shepherds. Shooting took place from 8 to 31 March 1929 at Chelmos, at the monastery of Mega Spilaio and along the Kalavryta railway, with Aliki Theodoridou, Emilios Veakis and Kostas Mousouris. The premiere, on 22 April 1929 at the Splendid, took place in the presence of Eleftherios Venizelos. Lost for decades, the film was found in 2003 at the Cinémathèque française, in a print with French intertitles.
Who it is for
A silent feature film of about an hour, preserved and restored by the Greek Film Archive. Better to know that the fustanella there designates a whole genre of village melodrama.
Prizes and reception
The first great commercial and artistic success of Greek cinema, and the oldest surviving fustanella film; a 1959 remake with Aliki Vougiouklaki also played to full houses.