Nostalgia Kinky

A frequently surprising and sometime shocking film, Nikos Koundouros’ Ο Δράκος (1956) is considered an absolute classic Greek film and it is easy to see why. Known as The Ogre of Athens (as well as The Beast of Athens) to English language audiences, Koundouros film is a real subtle powerhouse now available as a splendid special edition Blu-ray from Radiance Films.

A case of mistaken identity is at the heart of The Ogre of Athens but it is what Koundouros and screenwriter Iakovos Kabanellis transform what might have been a standard thriller that makes The O

gre of Athens such a uniquely powerful experience. The wonderful Dinos Iliopoulos stars as Thomas, a man whose life is turned upside down after he discovers he is the spitting image of a notorious criminal called ‘The Dragon’ and what a terrifically drawn out character this is. Physically slight with a receding hairline and confidence level, Iliopoulos delivers a major performance as the initially meek and sometimes unlikeable Thomas and it is a delight to watch.

Iliopoulos witty and delightfully unpredictable performance dominates The Ogre of Athens but the entire production is stacked with great turns by a very inspired supporting cast. All are directed with great care and skill by Koundouros, although Kabanellis’ philosophical and poetic script is perhaps ultimately the real star of the film.

A literary giant, Iakovos Kabanellis is one of the most important Greek writers of the 20th century. Whether it was via his plays, poetry, novels, songs or scripts, Kabanellis left a major mark. Perhaps best known for his Mauthausan Trilogy, a cycle of four arias based around his traumatic youth in a Nazi concentration camp, Kabanellis wrote a number of screenplays throughout his career with the most noteworthy being Michael Cacoyannis’s Stella (1956) and this exceedingly unique work. Finding perhaps the perfect fellow left-wing cinematic collaborator in Nikos Koundouros, Kabanellis delivers a wildly unconventional screenplay for The Ogre of Athens, impossible to predict and delightfully nihilistic at times.

Before his film career, Koundouros was an accomplished painter but after being briefly imprisoned for his leftist activities he switched his attention to film. Despite how incredibly accomplished it is, The Ogre of Athens is just the second film of Koundouros’ career. He’d only make ten or so films with Young Aphrodites (1963) being his best known film to English language audiences along with Ogre of Athens. Despite the relative small number of works in his filmography, Koundouros was clearly a major filmmaker as The Ogre of Athens attests to in literally every frame.

On top of the direction and script, a major selling point for The Ogre of Athens is the film’s startling black and white photography by cinematographer Kostas Theodoridis. He’d previously worked with both Koundouros and Kabanellis, as he’d photographed Stella and Koundouros’ debut The Magic City (1954). All three artists had been inspired by the Italian neorealists and that can especially be felt in Theodoridis’ crisp cinematography, which adds an almost noirish feel to the film’s already dark edges.

Coincidently, The Orge of Athens isn’t the only black and white classic from 1956 that deals with a case of mistaken identity as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man premiered as well. The Ogre of Athens is a much better film that The Wrong Man but Hitchcock’s film is an example of the kind of more standard film Koundouros might have made had he been much less ambitious. The Wrong Man is a minor classic in its own way but The Ogre of Athens is a much more daring and non-conforming work.

Studio-based The Wrong Man was the work of Warner Bros. Pictures whereas The Ogre of Athens is a defiantly independent production. In fact so much of what makes The Ogre of Athens endlessly fascinating is what led up to it. Andréas Giannopoulos details the history of the leftist independent Athens Film Company that produced The Ogre of Athens in the excellent printed essay that accompanies the new Radiance Blu-ray. Giannopoulos also discuss Greece’s tumultuous political climate of the period and how it played into the film, as well how the film went from a relative critical and popular failure to GOAT level status in Greece.

Critical reaction in Greece at the time of The Ogre of Athens release was apparently quite hostile to say the least.

When the film briefly played the Netherlands in 1956, Volkskrant noted the problem’s the film had in Greece via their pulverizing review, which I’ve partially loosely translated here:

“A threatening thunderstorm is already gathering over the heads of the four committee members as a result of films that were shown…including The Ogre of Athens. This film has been laughed at and whistled at in one’s own country, which can only be counted for the good of the Greeks…the director apparently thought too late that he does not have sufficient compositional talent to absorb the material that is not without merit in a harmonious film form. This is repeatedly reminiscent of many films from earlier years, as is often the case with beginners who tend to take over their powers. The result is a messy story that smacks of the studio and has also become largely cliché, played at an excruciatingly slow pace.”

Ouch.

The Ogre of Athens did indeed fail to connect with Greek audiences and critics at large upon its release. Giannopoulos points out much of this was down to just how much the film ‘deviated’ from what 1956 Greek audiences were expecting. It’s a sadly common thing so many of the most daring classic works of art have in common but thankfully time has a way of catching up.

It took The Ogre of Athens nearly a couple of decades before it began to find its audience. The film’s celebrated reissue coincided with Koundouros return to film after a several year absence with his political and musical documentary Songs of Fire (1975). By the time his film career was nearing a complete close in the 2000s, The Ogre of Athens was voted on as the finest Greek film ever made. It had been a decades long journey for him and his masterpiece.

English language audiences began to slowly experience the film decades after its Greek release via a number of film festivals throughout especially the nineties and 2000s. Here is a small sampling of English language articles (attributes can be seen upon downloading) regarding some of these festival showings.

The journey from critical revulsion to acceptance is documented well on Radiance’s excellent new Blu-ray via several valuable supplements. These include an excellent near half-hour interview with critic and historian Dimitris Papanikolaou discussing the film and its place in Greek cinema. This, along with the essay, form the core extras although two valuable additional featurettes are also on hand. First up is an introduction to the film by novelist Jonathan Franzen, who discusses how much the film has affected his life and work throughout the years. An excerpt from his novel Freedom is also included in the booklet. Finally we have an enlightening chat with critic Christina Newland, who shares her thoughts on the film and its creators. These are all excellent additions to the film.

Save for some brief and sporadic minor print damage around the reel marks, The Ogre of Athens looks extraordinary via this 4K restoration for this Radiance Blu-ray. Originally thought to have only survived via 35mm prints, the original negative for The Ogre of Athens was located just a few years back. However the soundtrack was damaged so Koundouros surviving family and trust created a ‘new sound design for the film’, which Radiance go into via the Blu-ray booklet. The restoration work done by all here is commendable. Radiance’s standard OBI strip is also present, as is a reversable sleeve in this limited edition package.

The Ogre of Athens is a very special film and will be a major cinematic discovery for many folks, like myself, who find it via this new Radiance Blu-ray. You can purchase the disc directly from Radiance as well as for sale at MVD.

-Jeremy Richey, November 2025-