Nikos Koundouros

Nikos Koundouros (1926-2017) was born in Agios Nikolaos, Crete. He studied painting and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts, graduating in 1948. During the war, he joined the National Resistance through the ranks of EAM/ELAS, and after the war, he was exiled to Makronisos due to his political beliefs. At the age of 28, he decided to pursue a career in cinema. His first film, "Magic City" (1954), screened at the Venice Film Festival, combined his influences from neorealism with his visually creative directorial perspective. With his complex and pioneering second film, "The Ogre of Athens" (1956), Koundouros established himself both in Greece and internationally as a director paving the way for a Greek "cinema d'auteur," alongside the popular, commercial Greek cinema. "The Ogre of Athens" was screened at the Venice Film Festival and was voted the best Greek film of the decade 1950-1960. His subsequent films, "The Outlaws" (1958), which participated in the Berlin Festival, "The River" (1960), which won the Best Director award at the Thessaloniki Festival, and "Young Aphrodites" (1963), which received Best Director awards at the Thessaloniki and Berlin Festivals, remained true to his aesthetic vision and received excellent reviews. Other films followed, including "Vortex or The Face of Medusa" (1967), "Songs of Fire" (documentary, 1974), "Klidonas" (short documentary, 1976), "1922" (1978), "Bordello" (1985), "Byron: Ballad for a Daemon" (1992), "The Photographers" (1998), and "A Ship for Palestine" (2012). He served as the president of the Greek Directors' Guild. In 1998, he published the volume "Stop Carre" featuring models, sketches, stills, and photographs of the people, sets, and costumes from his films. His autobiography, "I Dreamed I Died," was published in 2009 by Ikaros Editions. In 2011, the theatrical monologue "The Apology of Theophilos Tsafos" was released by Aigokeros Editions. He also published autobiographical texts "Letters from Crimea" (1991 letters to his partner, Sotiria Matziri), Agra 2016, and "Unruly Memory," Agra, 2016. His films were frequently broadcast on Greek and international television networks, and copies are included in the collections of the European Museum of Cinema, the French Cinematheque, and the Metropolitan Museum of New York. He passed away in Athens on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 22, 2017, at his home in Mets, at the age of 91.