The_Apaches_of_Athens_(1930)
The Apaches of Athens (1930)
1930 Greek silent film
The Apaches of Athens (Greek: Οι Απάχηδες των Αθηνών) is a 1930 Greek Silent film directed by Dimitrios Gaziadis. It was one of the first Greek Silent films to feature recorded sound via a gramophone. The method was also attempted by the film Astero. Apaches of Athens was produced by the DAG film company and is based on the 1921 operetta of the same name by Nikos Hadziapostolou and Yiannis Prineas. Yiannis Prineas appears in the film as the character Nikolas Karoubas. The term Apaches (απάχης) pronounced apaahes means gangster and the title is translated to gangster of Athens. The story is a romantic adventure about an Athenian gangster named Petros aka the Prince. His name in the original story was Kostas. The film was rebooted in 1950 produced by Olympia Film directed by Ilias Paraskevas and written by Yiannis Prineas.[1][2]
The film premiered in Athens on 28 April 1930 at the Attikon theater. It was very successful in Greece and was shown in several European countries namely England, France, Sweden and Norway. The film was also shown in parts of Egypt and Turkey. The film received mixed reviews from the media mostly because of the failed synchronization of sound which used an external gramophone at 78 RPM that sometimes did not overlap with the actor's lips moving. Dag films could not afford the vitaphone therefore the company did not produce the first talking film in Greece which was accomplished in the 1932 film Sweetheart of a Shepherdess (Ο Αγαπητικός της βοσκοπούλας).[3]
The film was lost until 2016. It was discovered in the film library of France and restored due to the generous donation of The Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The French title was Les Apaches d'Athenes and it featured French intertitles instead of dialog. The film was digitized to 4K and 35mm copies, and the music was reconstructed. The cost was close to 121,000 euros and featured the collaboration of Kostas Gavras, the Greek Film Archive, the French Film Archive and of the National Opera of Greece.[4] The supervisor was Maria Komninou. The film was processed at the L'Immagine Ritrovata workshops in Bologna and Paris. The film premiered on 15 February 2020 right before the outbreak of the covid pandemic at the Stavros Niarchos Hall featuring free admission. The film was set to be screened in countless film festivals worldwide but never did because of the covid shutdown.[5][6]
