The Young Runaway (1968)

Directed by: Stavros Tsiolis
Starring: Aggelos Antonopoulos, Ina Mauer, Maria Foka, Theano Ioannidou, Vasilis Andronidis, Spyros Konstantopoulos
Duration: 89’

The young Alexis, who just run away from the juvenile center, finds refuge in the basement of the even younger Maria. Behind the grown-ups’ back, and with the help of the other kids in the neighborhood, the two children will experience a short but also dangerous fairytale. At the same time an on-tour acting troupe comes by to offer the solution…Stavros Tsiolis’ first film is the declaration of his rare temperament. A sui generis film, from an equally unique maker, who saw in the heart of a typical melodrama the agitation of a (stolen) fast car’s engine.

Surrounded by Poulopoulos’ songs and Aggelos Antonopoulos’ yearning, Tsiolis placed a childhood love so unexpected that you cannot even utter its name. In the end he undermined anything serious-looking in the faces and attitudes of a group of kids, which may at times have impersonated the grown-ups, but not for a moment lost the compelling naivety of their age. The same naivety that on the one hand feeds their dreams, while on the other magnifies circumstances and lures them to the danger of hurrying to grow up. The result consists of one of the most unpredicted, entertaining and charming paradoxes in the history of the Greek cinema. And it marked the directorial debut of a great career. Thodoris Karamanolis

Anniversary screening dedicated to the 50 years of Stavros Tsiolis’ directing career in collaboration with the Lost Highway of Greek Cinema