The Ogre of Athens The Ogre of Athens Frankie Kanatas October 2024 CTEQ Annotations on Film Voted in 2006 as the greatest Greek film of all time by the Pan-Hellenic Association of Film Critics, Nikos Koundouros’ second feature, O Drakos (The Ogre of Athens, 1956), was maligned upon release in March 1956. Both left and right-wing critics took issue with the film, decrying it as “anti-Greek”, and urged public prosecutors to intervene to have it banned. The audience echoed their sentiments, with the film coming last in the yearly box office charts, cutting almost 100,000 fewer tickets than the number one film of the year, I Kafetzou (The Coffee Reader, Alekos Sakellarios, 1956). Only one critic championed the film, Mario Plorites, who wrote in the Eleftheria newspaper: “The Ogre goes much further and is much deeper than any other Greek film. For the first time, Greek cinema has taken a bold step forward”.1 Before Koundouros burst onto the scene in 1954, post-war Greek cinema was defined by theatrical adaptations, comedies of errors and melodramas. Under Filopimin Finos (Greece’s most prolific producer during the 1950s and 1960s), two films, Alekos Sakellarios’ Oi Germanoi Xanarhontai (The German’s Strike Back, 1948) and Yorgos Tzavellas’ O Methystakas (The Drunkard, 1950) sought to contend with the impacts of two consecutive wars on the Greek psyche in a way that was palatable for general audiences. Sakellarios, in his film, used satire and black comedy to call for Hellenic unification amid the Civil War, while Tzavellas opted for a more direct, dramatic approach to examining the effects of war on individual psychology. Conversely, Koundouros, in his debut Magiki Polis (Magic City, 1954), surveyed the devastation of war through a neo-realistic lens inspired by a visit to the refugee camp Drougoti. Vrasidas Karalis observed of Magic City: The story seemed to be used almost as a pretext so that the camera could record the modern ruins of Athens, the demolished buildings, the ruthless class that was taking over, the destruction of organic neighbourhoods, the growing alienation between people, and the hostile nature of the state apparatuses.2 In The Ogre of Athens, Koundouros continued his examination into the “growing alienation between people” and the “hostile nature of state apparatuses”, deducing that foreign intervention and the occupation of the right-wing government were rapidly eroding the Greek identity. Koundouros was perhaps the first Greek director to take an anti-American position through his cinema. In a 2010 interview, he remarked: “The Ogre was an indictment of our dependencies on the Goddess America during a time when post-war America was supposed to be saving itself with the UNRRA (United Nations Relief And Rehabilitation). Instead, they superficially supported global poverty and misery to lay the groundwork for a future dependency.”3 Greece’s subservience and dependence on the United States is made explicit in The Ogre of Athens through the gang’s plan to sell one of the pillars from the Temple of Olympian Zeus to an American antiquarian. When Thomas ‘The Dragon’ (Dinos Iliopoulos) hears the scheme, he’s taken aback, showing an implicit knowledge of the pillar’s cultural significance. For the gang, however, the potential capital gain trumps any historical value. One member insists that “We Greeks are not made for stuff like that”, while another crudely announces, “They sell gas across the street”. This latter comment infers that in post-war Greece, monuments of modernisation, such as gas stations, are now more famous and hold more value than historical ones. The contrast between reactions emphasises the difference in attitude between the crooks and the common man; Thomas has an appreciation for history, whereas the crooks are perfectly content with pillaging it for a chance at liberation. Having his film produced independently by the Athens Film Company allowed Koundouros and screenwriter Iakovos Kambellis (both leftists who were once imprisoned for their views) to expose the encroaching authoritarianism of the Greek state. Critic Kostas Stamatiou grumbled in his review: “Why isn’t the state doing something?”4 Koundouros’ pre-emptive answer is that the state does nothing about the terrifying spectre of ‘The Dragon’ because his presence feeds into their ultimate goal, oppression. The police apologise before putting handcuffs on Thomas but do nothing when a man is stabbed to death. In the aftermath of the stabbing, the camera pans to a sign that reads ‘Enjoy Greece’, macabrely signalling to the audience that this kind of ultraviolence is soon to become the norm. The lack of moralising is what makes The Ogre of Athens an anomaly in the pantheon of post-war Greek cinema. Unlike Finos productions, Koundouros’ film and the characters which inhabit it exist within a moral grey area. Thomas is neither good nor evil; he’s merely the trapped every-man whose last bastion of hope exists through criminality. From the moment Thomas accepts the misidentification of ‘The Dragon’, he sows the seeds of his destruction. Only through death is he able to regress to his former self. Had the film been produced by anyone other than the Athens Film Company, it can be assumed that it would’ve taken a definitive moral stance, especially towards Thomas and the role of the police. One can imagine a version of this film produced by the conservative Finos in which, upon getting arrested at the midpoint, Thomas confesses to authorities his true identity and assists them in capturing the real Dragon. Koundouros’ conclusion is far more ominous – The Dragon will never be arrested, he’s an omnipresent symbol in post-war Greece whose immateriality puts citizens in constant unsuspecting danger, placating them to the powers that be. It’s this sinister summation that continues to entrap viewers, upholding The Ogre of Athens’ position as, if not the greatest, certainly the most culturally significant Greek film from the 1950s. O Drakos / The Ogre of Athens (1956 Greece 103 min) Prod: Athens Film Company Dir: Nikos Koundouros Scr: Iakovos Kabanellis Ed: Giorgos Tsaoulis Phot: Kostas Theodoridis Set Dec: Tasos Zografos Cos Des: Deni Vahlioti Mus: Manos Hatzidakis Cast: Dinos Iliopoulos, Margarita Papageorgiou, Giannis Argyris, Thanasis Vengos, Marika Lekaki, Theodoros Andriakopoulos, Frixos Nassou, Kostas Savrinoudakis, Manolis Vlachakis, Kostas Spagnopoulos, Zizi Viopoulou, Kassi Janet Endnotes “O Drakos”, Filmtrade, accessed 20 September 2024. ↩ Vrasidas Karalis, A History of Greek Cinema (London: Bloomsbury, 2013), p. 92. ↩ “Thanasis Dritsas in conversation with Nikos Koundouros”, accessed 20 September 2024. ↩ Yannis Soldatos, History of Greek Cinema, Vol. 4 Documents 1900-1970 (Athens: Aigokeros, 2004) p. 267. ↩
