Film director Nikos Koundouros passed away at the age of 90 on Wednesday. He has several health problems, in the last weeks he was hospitalized with serious respiratory issues.
He was born on 15 December 1926 in Athens, his family was from Crete.
Koundouros studied painting and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts.
During the World War II, he was a member of the left-wing resistance movement EAM-ELAS. Because of his involvement he was exiled to the Makronissos prison island.
At the age of 28 he decided to follow a career in cinematography. He started his career as a director of the film Magiki Polis (1954), where he combined his neorealism influences with his own artistic viewpoint. He cast Thanasis Veggos, who he had met at Makronissos, as one of the characters in Magiki Polis.
After the release of his complex and innovative black and white film O Drakos (The dragon) he found acceptance as a prominent artist in Greece and Europe, and acquired important awards in various international and Greek film festivals.
O Drakos (English: The Ogre of Athens or The Dragon or The fiend of Athens) is was produced in 1956.
Plot: A simple man realizes that he looks like a criminal named “Drakos”. The police are after him and he hides in a night club. Day by day, he identifies himself with “Drakos”.
A very characteristic scene – Music: Manos Hatzidakis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEtDh55I7MU
The movie is mentioned (and plays an important role) in Jonathan Franzen‘s novel Freedom (2010), with the title The Fiend of Athens.
The film won the award for best movie 1955–1959 in the first Thessaloniki Film Festival. It also took part in the Venice Film Festival.
At the 2006 International Thessaloniki Film Festival, the film was announced as among the 10 all-time best Greek films by the PHUCC (Pan-Hellenic Union of Cinema Critics)
His 1963 film Young Aphrodites won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival. The film is based on the romance of Daphnis and Chloe, many of the actors were actually sheepherders.
In 1985 he was a member of the jury at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival.
Nikos Koundouros was one of the last great film directors of Greece.
