Feature film
The Ogre of Athens
Ο Δράκος
Nikos Koundouros · 1956
Synopsis
Thomás, a lonely junior bank clerk, is getting ready to spend the New Year holidays alone when he discovers with horror that he resembles a criminal whom the newspapers call the Dragon. Chased by the police, he takes refuge in a cabaret, where a gang from the underworld takes him for the real Dragon and where a dancer, Carmen, takes him under her protection. Little by little he takes on this role, and the desire to be someone at last drives him to organise a theft of antiquities.
Context
The author's second feature film, from a screenplay by Iákovos Kambanéllis, it was released on 5 March 1956, produced by the Athenian Film Company, with cinematography by Kóstas Theodorídis and music by Mános Hadjidákis in which the bouzouki of Vasílis Tsitsánis can be heard. The lead role was given to Ntínos Iliópoulos, until then a comic actor. Shunned by the public, it was presented the same year at the Venice Mostra. The Greek title means the dragon, the nickname of the bandit whose face the hero bears; the usual French form translates the nickname, not the word.
Who it is for
A film noir in Greek and in black and white, now available on the platform of Greek public television.
Prizes and reception
Awarded in 1960 at the first Thessaloniki festival among the best Greek films of the period, it has featured since 2006 among the ten best Greek films according to critics.
Sources for this page 9
The pages consulted to check this page.