John the Violent

Ιωάννης ο βίαιος

It’s midnight on a deserted street in Athens. A young woman is stabbed to death by a stranger, who instantly slips into the shadows. The alleged perpetrator, John Zachos, is a mentally unstable young man who fantasizes about killing women. He believes this gives him a sense of empowerment and validates his manhood as dictated by society at large. After his arrest, he immediately confesses to the murder but during the trial. it becomes apparent that his testimony is an impression of what he has read in the press and is full of inconsistencies. The search for the truth is interrupted and the battle between society and the individual rages on. This monumental debut by Tonia Marketaki was based on real-life events, which caused great controversy in the media and mesmerized audiences at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. The labyrinthine psychological portrait of a self-confessed murderer, forged in the hands of toxic masculinity, sweeps across the darkened streets of a city (and an era), plagued by uncertainty and listlessness. As it turns out, the truth has many faces and guilt has even more. Marketaki does not focus on the crime, but only uses it as a springboard for a feminist exploration that is light years ahead of its time. John the Violent is a definitive study of ethics in 1960s Greece, a stifling delineation of a psychologically fractured social fabric looking for redemption.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Tonia Marketaki
Script: Tonia Marketaki
Cinematography: Yorgos Arvanitis, Yorgos Panousopoulos
Editing: Yorgos Korras
Sound: Panos Panousopoulos
Actors: Manolis Logiadis, Mika Flora, Vangelis Kazan, Minas Chatzissavas, Takis Doukakos, Mairi Metaxa, Nikitas Tsakiroglou, Lida Protopsalti, Malaina Anousaki, Kostas Arzoglou
Producers: Tonia Marketaki
Costumes: Lefteris Haronitis
Sets: Anastasia Arseni
Format: DCP
Color: B/W
Production Country: Greece
Production Year: 1973
Duration: 177'
Contact: Greek Film Centre (info@gfc.gr)
Awards/Distinctions: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Leading Actor, Honorary Distinction for the Cinematography – Thessaloniki Film Festival 1973
Universally accessible screening

Tonia Marketaki

She studied cinema at the Paris I.D.H.E.C.. She worked as a film critic from 1963 to 1967 and then presented her first short film, John and the Road (1967). She was arrested by the junta and then managed to escape to Italy, then to Paris, to find herself in London where she worked in film productions. She ended up in Algiers, making documentaries for the newly formed state of Algeria. She returned to Greece and directed the masterpiece John the Violent (1973), which was honored with the awards for best director, screenplay and actor at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. In 1978, she directed the TV series The Lemon Forest, an adaptation of the novel by Kosmas Politis. This was followed by the films The Price of Love (1984), based on the novel by Konstantinos Theotokis, which won the award for the Best Mediterranean Film at the Bastia Film Festival (Corsica) and Crystal Nights (1992), which won, among others, the 2nd prize of the Bastia Film Festival.

Filmography

1967 John and the Road
1973 John the Violent
1978 The Lemon Forest (TV)
1983 The Price of Love
1992 Crystal Nights