Nice to meet you, Savvopoulos

Directed by: Lakis Papastathis
Featuring: Dionysis Savvopoulos, Sotiria Bellou, Domna Samiou, Stella Gadedi
Duration: 50 minutes
Year of Production: 1975

This special screening is part of the exhibition “LAKIS PAPASTATHIS: In Search of the Lost Image”, organized by the Benaki Museum, the Athens Open Air Film Festival (which curated the exclusive screening), and the ERT Archive Department, which undertook the digital restoration of the film from the original reel.

Opening remarks will be delivered by Benaki Museum President Irini Geroulanou, ERT President Giannis Papadopoulos, President of the Athens Film Company Maria Bobola, and Manos Efstratiadis — assistant director to Lakis Papastathis on the original production. Also in attendance will be Dionysis Savvopoulos, accompanied by fellow musicians.

This documentary was created by Lakis Papastathis for EIRT, featuring Dionysis Savvopoulos, with contributions from Sotiria Bellou, Domna Samiou, and Stella Gadedi. It introduced the then-young Thessaloniki-born songwriter to post-dictatorship public television audiences for the first time.

Savvopoulos, having completed a highly successful decade in Greek music (with landmark performances such as Thiasos Skion at the Kyttaro venue), and Lakis Papastathis, who had already won Best Short Film at the Thessaloniki Film Festival for Letters from America, came together at a charged moment in modern Greek history. With the camera of Nikos Petanidis, they brought their most anarchic ideas to life.

The documentary includes live recordings from the album 10 Xronia Kommatia, showing Savvopoulos wandering Athens in 1975 with his guitar, browsing the shop windows of Minion, and singing Demosphenous Lexis at bus stops and in Omonia Square. The film also features appearances by Papastathis himself and Alekos Patsifas, founder of the Lyra record label.

The film’s copy was considered lost for decades until it was recently rediscovered by filmmaker Elias Giannakakis, who explored Papastathis’ archive to complete the video installations for the “LAKIS PAPASTATHIS: In Search of the Lost Image” exhibition, currently on view at the Benaki Museum until July 20.

The restoration and digitization of this lost film was made possible thanks to the persistence and dedication of the ERT Archive Department.