Feature film
Social Decay
Κοινωνική σαπίλα
Stelios Tatasopoulos · 1932
Synopsis
Dínos Vristhénis, a poor student at the University of Athens, gives up his studies for lack of money and is hired as an actor in a troupe, where he falls in love with its star, Níki. From there he slides towards the dens of the Athenian underworld, among drugs, gangs and prison, until tobacco workers pull him out of an almost fatal danger.
Context
The shooting was paid for by the author's father, who sold a plot of land in Constantinople, and the film was acted mostly by amateurs or under assumed names. The premiere, planned at the Splendid, was cancelled by the owner, who feared the law known as Idionymo: as the cinemas of central Athens shied away, screenings began at Kokkiniá, then spread to the provinces. The original print was destroyed under the Occupation; elements found in the mid-eighties allowed a restoration in 1989, redone digitally in 2017 with documenta 14.
Who it is for
A restored silent film, subtitled in English and sometimes viewable online. It is worth knowing that in 1932 Greece had just absorbed the refugees from Asia Minor.
Prizes and reception
Regarded by the national film archive as the first Greek film of social criticism, a precursor of neorealism in the country.
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