1. Your film To Kill A Truth won award Best Indie Short Film. How was
the film inspired?
The film was
inspired by the international economic scandal that involves Novartis
pharmaceutical overprescribing and overpricing of medicine,
extortions, corruption and kickbacks of millions of euros and the
stand that the greek systemic mass media took by covering up the
scandal in my country. The scandal
involved numerous former prime ministers and ministers from the New
Democracy and PASOK parties, who took bribes from the Swiss
pharmaceutical giant, in order to introduce the company’s drugs to
the Greek market and the National Health System, using exorbitant
overpricing, and thus burdening the indebted social security funds
with 7 billion euros of extra cost, in a time of strict economic
surveillance by the ECB and the IMF. Numerous countries
claimed and won compensations for the company’s misdoings against
the public interest. USA and
Novartis came to a legal settlement with the former collecting the
amount of 350 million dollars as compensation for bribes that were
organized in US territory and took place in Greece. Still, in Greece
a different story took place.
With the
“help” of the majority of mass media which operate solely in the
interest of the two parties Nea Dimokratia and KINAL (former PASOK),
the political system turned the accusers into the ones being accused,
transformed the scandal into a scheme of political revanchism,
carrying out character assassination on people who had the courage to
expose the injustice, defaming them because they stood for lawfulness
and righteousness.
“To Kill a
Truth”, tells the story of a systemic journalist, who has selected
to serve political agendas and not the public interest, and addresses
the vital importance of impartial and objective journalism to the
integrity of Democracy and the public interest.
3. Films that inspired you to become a filmmaker?
Just
to mention a few ones. Intolerance
(1916) by D. W. Griffith,
Apocalypse
Now (1979) by
Francis Ford Coppola, 2001:
A Space Odyssey
(1968) by Stanley Kubrick, Cinema
Paradiso (1988)
by Giuseppe Tornatore, Broadway
Danny Rose
(1984) by Woody Allen, Nostalghia
(1983) by Andrei Tarkovsky, Dreams
(1990) by Akira Kurosawa and last but not least The
Travelling Players
(1975) by Theodoros Angelopoulos.
4.
Who is your biggest influence?
Although I was very young at the time, what struck me as most interesting for a reason yet to fathom, was the slow pacing, the long takes, and the dreamlike visual imagery of Andrei Tarkovsky, Theo Angelopoulos and Kurosawa in his Dreams. It was a poetic, transcendental revelation, especially with Tarkovsky. I was very young at the time and, to be honest, I didn’t know what was going on exactly but I did know for sure that these movies “scarred” my imagination forever. I couldn’t turn my face away from the screen. I was caught by surprise by the authenticity of the actions and the beauty of the artistic images, the perfect framing, finding myself immersed in a seemingly familiar universe yet so original, deprived of schematic and fake elements and unnecessary cliches. I realized then that this was how films should be.
7. If you could work with anyone in the world, who would that person be?
Without
any second thoughts, that would be the Coen brothers.
I
absolutely dig their non-commercial approach to filmmaking, their
often dark and weirdly funny style, their unconventionality and
tendency to redefine genres as well their stories’ eccentric
characters and labyrinthine plots. I love all their movies without
exceptions. And, if I may add one more, the master Woody Allen.
8.
The one person who has truly believed in you throughout your career.
This
would be my girlfriend during earlier times and my wife nowadays.
Luckily for me they are both the same person.
9.
What was the most important lesson you had to learn as a filmmaker?
David
Mamet, on Directing
a Film,
asks the question “Why do some directors tend to have so many takes
of one shot?” And his answer is “Because they just don’t know
exactly what they want to shoot and that terrifies them.” I tend to
agree with this view. And that is an important lesson I learned the
hard way.
10.
What keeps you motivated?
Maybe
the same urge that made me run to a store at the age of 19, as soon
as I could afford it, to buy my first camera and begin shooting an
adaptation (by me) of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
The urge to turn the eye of the camera to the world capturing time
and space, dramatized action, an artistic depiction of reality,
making a leap from the ephemeral to the eternal.
14. The most challenging project you worked on. And why?
That
would be “Shadows”
again. We had to overcome a lot of obstacles. The cast changed
several times before we started shooting, we had to change our
composer along the way, although the music score was almost finished.
Even on the audition day, there was a public transportation general
strike and we had to bring all actors and actresses by taxi to the
hotel the audition took place. We had to work on a very tight budget,
so there were days we kept on shooting for 18 hours straight, with my
dear cameraman wanting to kill me. But eventually all turned out just
fine.
15.
What are your short term and long term career goals?
My
short term goal is to begin shooting my upcoming short film. Long
term I wish to make history or, something more down to earth, to
never stop shooting until I manage one day to contribute a small
piece of knowledge to the filmmaking artistic process and make my
work recognisable, with a hope that will leave behind an explanation
regarding the meaning of existence or intriguing questions regarding
it. Or just a consolation to the confusion of modern life.
16.
Your next projects?
As we speak, I am working on my latest short film and we are at the stage of script development. The film is called “The Illusion of Happiness”, an existential drama revolving around the notion of time and the ways it determines/influences the relationship between man and the context of existence.
2. Tell us about your background and when did you decide to become
a filmmaker?
A bit regarding my
academic record. I hold a BSc in Civil Infrastructure from Alexandre
University of Thessaloniki, a Diploma in theatre and film studies and
an MA in European Philosophy from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Regarding the matter at hand, I have been making movies since the age
of 19.
There was never a
decisive moment that made me choose to get involved with cinema. For
me, the engagement with directing was a given, a self-evident fact at
a very early stage in life. Since I can remember myself, I knew that
this was simply something I had to do. No questions asked. I loved
the way that filming had the ability of embracing reality, or a
fragment of it if you wish, not by merely describing it but by
recreating and redefining it, participating in its ecumenical essence
and thus leaving a footprint in the eternal path of the quest for
truth. You see, It wasn’t so much a decision I made at some given
moment rather than an obeyance to a distinctive inner call.
5. Do you have a favorite genre to work in? Why is it your favorite?
For
sure Ι don't find all genres to be equally interesting. I am not
into Horror and Splatter movies for example, although I wouldn’t
turn my back on them. That’s totally subjective of course. I pretty
much like Guy Ritchie’s crime/comedy style as well as Woody
Allens’s “remarkable laziness”. The moral
ambiguity of Noir films or films that combine elements of comedy and
drama and so on. To answer your question though, what is closer to my
heart is Drama/Tragedy.
A
complex artistic expression with many meanings, which leads us to the
farthest-reaching
questions about the value of existence. It is a solution against the
suffering and absurdity of life, a yes–saying to the omnipotent
character of life. Tragedy is perhaps the only art form that can give
consolation to those who see everywhere only the absurdity of
existence. Tragedy presents us with a tragic ideal, or rather with a
life, whose inherently tragic nature makes us overshadow and forget
all its wretched and pathetic elements. Instead of producing despair
and depression, tragedy produces exhilaration. I think…
6.
What’s your all-time favorite movie and why?
This is a very intriguing question and a difficult one to answer. How can one choose from so many iconic films and masterpieces, each one a great work and accountable for its own merits? I’ll choose a different approximation for this answer. I will pick the movie I believe I watched more times than any other up to now and that is The Big Lebowski (1998) by Joel and Ethan Coen. Now the “why”... Well pinning Coens’ artistic sensibilities down to a list of specific practices and styles is an impossible task one might say. Maybe it's just because, well… because “the dude abides”.
11. How has your style evolved?
This
is tricky. When I began shooting my first short, I didn't know
anything about cinema. Meaning that I didn’t have any prior
academic knowledge on the subject except the agonizing desire and
impatience of self-expression through this specific medium. It was an
uncompromised thirst. With nothing but an intuitive guidance, I began
shooting and took it from there. As I was growing up of course I
tried different techniques and genres, adding my own personal twists,
experimenting, choosing stories that only I could be able to tell,
absorbing a lot of elements from my surrounding environment. Focusing
on all aspects of the creative process, becoming more and more
analytical, careful and patient. Today I still feel that I am at the
beginning of my journey, although I am much more confident and
certain regarding my choices.
12.
On set, the most important thing is…
Pre-production.
13. The project(s) you’re most proud of…
I am equally proud of all of my projects, even those where I feel there was a mistake. Still, if I had to choose one, I’d pick “Shadows”, a short film I shot in 2018, for the reason that it marked the beginning of a new creative period for me and my work.