2010 | 90 minutes
In Greek with English subtitles

Cast: Renos Haralambidis (Makis), Giannis Zouganelis (Kiriakos), Takis Spyridakis (Kosmas), Alkis Panagiotidis (Babis), Dimitris Poulikakos (Lawyer), Dimitris Verikios (Police Officer), Titika Saerigouli (Old Lady)

The Marx Brothers meet Aristophanes in this offbeat road movie. Two down-and-out undertakers, an unsuccessful actor and an ex-con join forces in an effort to turn around their failed lives. On the promise of a large fee, they fulfill the dying wish of a wealthy Greek man to carry his body on foot for burial in his remote home village many miles from Athens. Much goes wrong along the way, but when the journey becomes an opportunity for self-discovery, the four come away with more than they bargained for.

Followed by interview with David Schwartz, former Chief Curator of MoMI

Director’s note
We live in a culture that abhors death. Everything is done to hastily dispense of the deceased. But in this film, the deceased does not want to leave before making one last journey back to where his no-longer-beating heart leads him: an odyssey of a dead Odysseus embracing his Ithaca. The four pallbearers never met the man whose body they are carrying; nor can they imagine the true meaning of Ithaca. Nevertheless, for the four it is a journey towards self-awareness and maturity. Secrets are revealed, tears shed, fears experienced, but the four achieve personal purification.

1997 | 87 minutes
In Greek with English subtitles

Cast: Renos Haralambidis (Eirinaios), Yannis Bostantzoglou (Tolis), Dimitra Papadima (Maria), Giorgos Voultzatis (Marios), Vana Pefani (Popi)

Eirinaios, a wannabe film director, has four unsold movie scripts in hand. Approaching 30, he faces eviction for not paying the rent. He meets a soft-hearted maker of porn flicks and, to make ends meet, they decide to shoot a love story. While waiting to go into production, Eirinaios shoots a no-budget TV commercial, washes windows, and falls in love. This refreshing look at Athenian culture at the end of the century combines everything from subway scenes to traditional Greek music and playful winks to Robert DeNiro in Taxi Driver.

Haralambidis won the coveted FIPRESCI Prize awarded by international film critics at the Istanbul Film Festival.

Followed by interview with  film historian Andrew Horton.

Director’s note
NO BUDGET STORY is my “heroic” entry into cinema as a director and screenwriter. It expresses a time in my life when my motto was “cinema or death.” I shot it when I was 26 years old, and it embodies my youthful passion and my need to create with whatever means I had at my disposal. I chose to shoot it in black and white to give a distance from reality. I was trying to give the film the feeling of a fairy tale. The movie stars my friends, my parents, and people from the neighborhood where I grew up. It’s an autobiographical film. I’m still working on it to this day. I recently recomposed the music and did final editing.

2005 | 82 minutes | 35mm
In Greek with English subtitles

Cast: Renos Haralambidis (Stefanos), Giorgos Voultzatis (Nikos), Mano Vakousis (Aris), Tina Thliveri (Popi), Mara Darmousli (Anna)

Upon completion of his military obligation, all Stefanos owns are debts left by his deceased mother. Job opportunities are non-existent, and his girlfriend has ditched him. Two childhood friends convince him that robbing a bank will solve all their problems. The robbery and its aftermath offer a hilarious look at the foibles of contemporary Greece.

Followed by interview with film historian Foster Hirsch.

Director’s note
My films have always struggled to find themselves. It was more difficult for THE HEART OF THE BEAST, which cannot be classified in any specific genre. It moves between detective film noir, bittersweet comedy, and poetic cinema. And there’s the light nostalgia of old Greek cinema. The film deals with the spectacular fall but also the redemption of a narcissist who is called to face real life. It is my only film where the script is not entirely of my own conception. I always wanted to adapt a best-selling book, without losing my personal touch and without betraying the book’s author.

2000 | 85 minutes | 35mm
In Greek with English subtitles

Cast: Renos Haralambidis (Nikos), Anna-Maria Papaharalambous (Sofia), Michalis Iatropoulos (Manolis), Kostas Tsakonas (Telis), Alkis Panagiotidis (Takis)

Nikos, struggling with work, romance, and finding meaningful purpose in life, roams the streets of Athens on a warm summer night looking for love and questioning his existence. Along the way, he befriends a motley bunch of quirky characters: a young woman who has just broken up with her boyfriend, two unrepentant middle-aged bachelors, two mobsters, and a poetry-reciting coffee house owner.

Featuring a live musical performance by Renos Haralambidis and acclaimed jazz vibraphonist and composer Christos Rafalides, prior to screening. Followed by interview with film historian Andrew Horton.

Director’s note
CHEAP SMOKES is the most autobiographical of my films. I tried to capture the essence of a bohemian generation of Athenians at the end of the 1990s that had moved to the margins. I tried to combine realism with elements of neo-expressionism, the atmosphere of film noir, and elements of the cinema of everyday moments, reality and fantasy, seriousness and ridiculousness. The film went unnoticed by both critics and the public, but it has been rediscovered by the next generation. It is still shown in cinemas all over Greece, almost 20 years after the first screening.