26 Famous Movies Filmed in Greece

1. 1957 Boy on a Dolphin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Director Elia Kazan

Starring Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolff, Elena Karam.

Location:

 Turkey, Athens Greece, New York

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. 1983 Rembetiko

 

 

(Language:Greek)

Director Costas Ferris

Starring Sotiria Leonardou, Nikos Kalogeropoulos, Michalis Maniatis

Location:

 Greece

 

 

Based on the life of Marika Ninou, a rebetiko singer, born in Smyrna (Asia Minor) 1917, who was deported, together with her family at the age of seven, to Greece, where her family open a night club.

In the space of only a few years, Marika has witnessed her father murder her mother, run away from home, had a baby, and returned to the night club.

 

 12. 1985 Eleni

 

 

Director Peter Yates

Starring Kate Nelligan, John Malkovich, Linda Hunt

Location:

 Greece, Canada, Spain, USA

From the book ‘Eleni’ by Nicholas Gage

 

 

A tribute to his mother, Eleni, by Greek-American Nicholas Gage, a journalist at the New York Times, who, when posted to a bureau in Greece, decides to solve the murder of his mother by the communist guerrillas, when they invade her village during the Greek civil war.

The Greek civil war; 1946 to 1949, between the Greek government army, backed by the United Kingdom and the United States and the Democratic Army of Greece (DSE, the military branch of the Greek Communist Party (KKE), backed by Yugoslavia and Albania as well as by Bulgaria.

 

13. 1986 Shirley Valentine

 

 

 

Director Lewis Gilbert

Starring   Pauline Collins, Tom Conti, Julia McKenzie.

Location:

 Mykonos Greece, London England, Liverpool England.

 

 

Shirley Valentine, a fed up, English housewife with a penchant for talking to walls, jumps at the chance of a holiday in Greece, when her friend drops out, Shirley travels to Mykonos alone.

Here begins a passionate, holiday, love affair with Greek waiter; Costas, and the beginning of Shirley’s life in Greece.

 

14. 1988 The Big Blue

 

 

 

Director Luc Besson

Starring Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno, Rosanna Arquette

Location:

 Aghia Anna Amorgos,Greece, Le Grand Bleu Bar, Amorgos Greece, Kalotarritisa Bay Greece, (The Olympia shipwreck scene) Amorgos Greece, Ios island Greece, Sicily, Italy, Corsica, France, Peru.

 

 

The Big Blue, a cult film, the heavily fictionalized story (In real life, neither diver reached 400 feet, and neither diver died whilst diving), of two friends, Enzio Maiorca(Jean Reno) and  and Jaques Mayol (Jean-Marc Barr ) both free divers, growing up in Greece in the 1960s, until their deaths in the 1980s.

 

15. 1991 Mediterraneo

 

 

(Language; Italian, Greek, Turkish, English)

Director Gabriele Salvatores

Starring Diego Abatantuono, Claudio Bigagli, Giuseppe Cederna, Vana Barba.

Location:

  Kastellorizo Island, Dodecannese, Greece

Academy Award for Best Foreign Film 1991

Set during WWII, Mediterraneo is about a group of Italian soldiers stranded on what they think is an abandoned Greek island, their mission to spot enemy ships, but there is not an enemy in sight.

The Greek inhabitants, mostly women and children, as the German’s have taken all the men, apart from the village priest, after watching the Italians from their hiding place, realize they are harmless, and come out of hiding, and make friends.

A lot of quirky characters!

 

16. 2001 Captain Correlli’s Mandolin

 

 

 

Director John Madden

Starring Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, and John Hurt.

Location:

Chorgota Beach, Komitata village, Sami harbor, Kefalonia, Greece.

Based on the book ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ by Louis de Bernières

 

 

It’s1941, WWII, Italy has allied with the Germans and invaded Greece, Italian Soldiers are stationed on the remote Greek island of Kefalonia to keep its inhabitants in check.

Happy go lucky Captain Antonio Correlli, makes the best of a bad job, integrates with the locals, entertaining them with his mandolin, his passion in life.

Pelargia, the local doctor’s daughter, engaged to a fisherman who is away at war, against her better judgment, slowly falls in love with Antonio.

In 1943, Italy surrenders to the allies, what will be stronger, the couples love for each other, or the love for their respective countries?

 

17. 2002 The Bourne Identity

 

 

 

Director Doug Liman

Starring Franka Potente, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper.

Location:

 Mykonos, Greece (Final scenes), Sea Satin Market, Little Venice, Mykonos Greece (Scooter rental scene), Czech Republic, France, Italy, Spain

Based on Robert Ludlum’s novel, “The Bourne Identity”

 

 

In the Bourne Identity, a wounded man is found by fishermen, who nurse him back to health, but, once he has his heath back, he realizes his memory is gone.

The unknown man tries to find clues to his identity, using a Swiss bank account number, and soon finds he is being hunted, and so the adventure starts, he’s on a mission to find out who he is and why he’s being hunted.

 

 18. 2003 A Touch of Spice

 

 

 

(“The original Greek title is Πολίτικη Κουζίνα (Politiki Kouzina) which means Cuisine of the City and refers to the Cuisine of Constantinople.

 However, in the film’s promotional material, the word Politiki of the title is depicted in capital letters, therefore allowing an alternative reading of the title, due to the lack of punctuation, as Πολιτική Κουζίνα (Politiki Kouzina) which means Political Cuisine signifying the important role that politics played in the lives of the main characters.

The Turkish title, “Bir Tutam Baharat” , Greek title, “A Touch of Spice”.)

(Language: Greek, Turkish, English)

Director Tassos Boulmetis

Starring Georges Corraface, Ieroklis Michaelidis, Renia Louizidou

Location:

 Athens Greece, Lavrio Greece, Istanbul Turkey.

 

 

In the film, Fanis reminisces about growing up in Istanbul, where his grandfather Vassillis, owned a grocery store, specializing in spices.

Due to political unrest, in 1964, Fanis and his family are deported from Istanbul by the Turks, and begin a new life in Athens, Greece, Vassillis, his grandfather, stays behind in Turkey.

The only way Fanis can come up with, to keep the link to his grandfather alive, is to cook, using all his grandfather’s culinary secrets of the “Politiki” cuisine; which spice goes best with this, which spice goes best with that.

Vassillis has promised to visit Fanis in Athens, but that promise is never kept, and, after thirty years, when Vassillis is ill, and near death, Fanis returns to Istanbul, where he meets up with his old friend Saime.

Reflecting on life, Fanis realizes that he never took his grandfather’s advice, he never did put a little spice in his life.

 

19. 2004 Brides- Nyfes (Νύφες)

 

 

 

(Language; Greek, Russian, Italian, Turkish)

Director Pantelis Voulgaris

Starring Damian Lewis, Victoria Haralabidou, Andréa Ferréol.

Location:

 Andros Greece, Athens Greece, Crete Greece, Kastoria Greece.

 

 

Nyfes (Brides): Set in 1922, during the Greco-Turkish war; “The Asia Minor Catastrophe”, and the Russian civil war, men are scarce, and so, the women from these countries, look elsewhere for a husband.

After corresponding with immigrants, 700 women board the SS King Alexander, clutching only a photograph, with a name; they head for a new life, with an unknown husband in America.

The ultimate “Mail order bride”!

 

  20. 2008 Mama Mia

 

 

Director Phyllida Lloyd

Starring: Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Amanda Seyfried.

Location:

Agios Ioannis Chapel, Skopelos, Greece (wedding procession), Kastani Beach, Skopelos, Greece, Damouchari, Pelion, Greece.

 

 

One day, on finding her mother’s diary, Sophie discovers that any one of three men may be her father, and, without telling her mother, invites all three to the wedding which is to be held on the island, Mama Mia!

 

21. 2009 Dogtooth

 

 

(Κυνόδοντας – Kynodontas – original title)

(Language; Greek)

 Director Yorgos Lanthimos

 Starring Christos Stergioglou, Michele Valley, Angeliki Papoulia

Location:

 Athens Greece Dogtooth was nominated for Best Foreign Film, Academy Awards 2011, plus it has won too many other awards to mention!

 

 

The second film from Greek director, Yorgos Lanthimos: Overprotective parents, won’t allow their three teenage children out into the world until their “dog teeth” fall out, they live in isolation, listening to homemade tapes, to aid their vocabulary, in a large, isolated, country house.

A weird “Greek wave” thriller, Greek critic Dimitris Danikas gave the film a rating of eight out of ten and characterizes it as “black, surreal, and nightmarish.”

 

22. 2013 Before Midnight

 

 

 

Director Richard Linklater

Starring Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick.

Location:

Kardamyli – Mani , Messinia, Greece, The Westin Resort Costa Navarino, Messinia, Greece, Patrick Leigh Fermor’s house – Kardamyli, Messinia, Greece (house where Jesse and Céline spend their Greek holiday), Pylos, Greece (street scenes), Kalamata International Airport – Kalamata, Messinia, Greece (Jesse and Hank at the airport in the opening scene).

 

 

The third and final (so far!) of the ‘Before’ films preceded by “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset”.

It’s eighteen years since the French-American couple, Jesse and Celine, first met on a train in Vienna.

 Now, living in Paris, they have taken a trip to Greece, can they save their marriage?

 

23. 2013 Little England

(Mikra Anglia original title)

 

 

(Language; Greek)

 Director Pantelis Voulgaris

 Starring Pinelopi Tsilika, Sofia Kokkali, Aneza Papadopoulou.

Location:

  Andros, Greece

 

 

Little England: “One home, one secret, one man, two sisters.”

 Orsa is passionately in love with lieutenant Spyros Maltabes, but tells no one, Moscha, her sister, wants to leave the island of Andros, where it’s a woman’s fate to marry a sailor, who are never home, or drown at sea.

Their mother, Mina, knowing that love means heartache and trouble, and disregarding the well-being and feelings of her daughters, conspires to arrange marriages for them both.

Orsa is to marry Captain Nikos, and later, Moscha is to marry the now Captain, Spyros Maltabes, her sister’s secret love.

Their house is divided into two. Down stairs lives Orsa and Nikos, up stairs lives Moscha and Spyros, not a good recipe for their happiness!

 

24. 2014 The Two Faces of January

 

 

 

Director Hossein Amini

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Oscar Isaac.

Location:

 Athens Greece, Chania Crete Greece, Iraklion Crete Greece, Istanbul Turkey

 

 

The Two Faces of January; An American couple, Chester MacFarland and his younger wife Colette, arrive in Athens by boat via the Corinth Canal.

While sightseeing on the Acropolis, Chester and Colette meet the Greek-speaking tour guide, Rydal, who is scamming tourists, and Rydal accepts their invitation to dinner.

When at the couple’s hotel, Chester and Colette shock Ryder by asking him to help them move the body of a man, whom Chester says attacked him.

Rydal agrees to help the couple and finds himself in a situation he can’t wriggle his way out of.

 

25. 2015 Cloudy Sunday

(Ouzeri Tsitsanis – original title)

 

 

 

(Language; Greek)

 Director Manousos Manousakis

 Starring Andreas Konstantinou, Haris Fragoulis, Christina Hilla Fameli.

Location;

  Greece

 

 

Ouzeri Tsitsanis: Greece. WWII, under German occupation, Christian, Giorgos, falls in love with Jewish, Estrea (Thessaloniki has a large 500 year old Jewish community), something frowned on by their families.

 The story evolves in the “Ouzeri” where Tsitsanis, famous Greek composer and singer of “Rembetiko”- the blues, works.

 German officers, Greek collaborators, black marketers, and undercover resistance fighters, mingle together in this story of betrayal, love and treachery.

 

26. 2016  Roza of Smyrna

 (Η Ρόζα της Σμύρνης – original title)

 

 

 

(Language; Greek, English, Turkish)

Director George Kordellas

 Starring Tasos Nousias, Leda Protopsalti, Evgenia Dimitropoulou

Location:

 Athens Greece, Agassios Lesvos Greece, Izmir Turkey

 

 

Roza and Ismael have a secret, a secret they have kept for decades.

While on a trip to Izmir, with the curator of a renowned Athens museum, Dimitris is looking for objects for his exhibition about the Culture of Nationalities who lived together in Izmir before the genocide.

 In an antique shop in Izmir, Dimitris comes across an old photograph, a wedding dress soiled with blood and a letter.

 

My Favourites:

 

 There are some wonderful films here, my favorites are, in order of best first, “Zorba the Greek”, wow, did he know how to live!

 “The Big Blue”, I  could watch it over and over again, I loved  “A touch of Spice” and the Greek rembetiko era: “Rembetiko”, “Roza of Smyrna” and “Cloudy Sunday”.