ONE OUT OF THE FIRING SQUAD

This institutional role of Manos Zaharias has, strangely enough, concealed his work as an artist in cinema. When, in the late seventies, Manos returned home after a long and dark period of forcible exile, he had already made nine films in the Soviet Union (including one, which was made during the Civil War). Though this oeuvre may not have been treated with the usual superficiality and prejudice, it was, nonetheless, stifled, and for this we are all liable. Is it merely Manos' modesty that is to blame? Is it the inherent weakness of Greek cinema which is unable to move beyond personal expediency and heed, respect, think about and support the work of disinterested people who despise self-promotion? Because, on the few occasions when certain films by Manos Zaharias were screened in Greece, the reception they enjoyed by the public and the critics was not merely warm; it was also revealing. The Thessaloniki International Film Festival aims to redress this gross injustice by honouring Manos Zaharias with the Golden Alexander and aspires to organize, at a future date, a comprehensive tribute to his cinematic oeuvre.