Born in Mytilene (Lesbos Island) in 1941 and passed away in Athens in 2016. He studied film in Athens while working as an assistant director in Greek and international productions. From 1960 to 1973, he lived in Paris, where he studied at the Sorbonne. In 1973, he returned to Greece and directed his first film, The Colors of Iris, an instant classic of New Greek Cinema. He was one of the most original and prolific film makers of the New Wave of Greek Cinema. Developing his personal style, blending various genres—from comedy to crime films and from musicals to road movies—he directed 13 more films. His work focused on the lives of people in contemporary Greece, their interpersonal relationships, cinema itself, and art in general. His cinematic vision was characterized by humor and tenderness, with strong doses of irony and sarcasm about the human condition.
A young pizza delivery man, who falls out of nowhere and ultimately flies into nowhere, traverses the sidelined reality of Athens and becomes a witness to the confessions of this (self-)exiled world.
CAST
Thanos Samaras
Alexia Kaltsiki
Errikos Litsis
Dimitris Imellos
Spyros Stavrianidis
Christos Loulis
CREDITS
DIRECTOR: Nikos Panayotopoulos
SCREENPLAY: Nikos Panayotopoulos, Michel Fais
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Kostis Gikas
EDITING: Yorgos Triandafyllou
MUSIC: Stamatis Kraounakis
SETS: Dionyssis Fotopoulos
COSTUMES: Marianna Spanoudakis
SOUND: Philippos Pantazis, Valia Tserou, Kostas Varybopiotis
AWARDS
VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Official Competition
THESSALONIKI FILM FESTIVAL
FIPRESCI prize (Nikos Panayotopoulos)
REVIEWS
“A dark mural, a black myth in the colors of twilight, with a Bressonian warmth, with luminous direction—a film stunningly written, acted, and lit.”
Il Manifesto
“This dark chronicle underscores the dead end of artificial paradises. Its title suggests that the only liberation for these people is Death.”
Le Monde
“Panayotopoulos does not judge, does not moralize, but observes—and that’s precisely why we like him more. Entirely paradoxical, within his detached intellectualism…”
L’ Unita
“The central hero is precisely ‘the Nobody who comes from Nowhere,’ not to deliver justice, but to fight for his survival among the rats of the city. In the film’s plot, nothing particularly dramatic happens. Two hundred people aren’t killed. It’s just that everything is shit: greedy and malicious people reeking of their own rot, spouting nonsense as if it were wisdom, lurking to snatch the bead from your eye. Even the girl who moved the hero is a worthless tramp who betrays him for no reason at all. In this merciless world, Panayiotopoulos very aptly has his hero kill the first person who dared to show him mercy. And just like in westerns, after the catharsis, ‘Nobody rides off once more into Nowhere.’ Delivery is probably the first Greek film that concerns all of humanity. And a great excuse to buy a ticket to our inner world.”
Dionyssis Charitopoulos-Writer