Vasilis Vasilikos
Biography
Vassilis Vassilikos (Greek: Βασίλης Βασιλικός, born November 18, 1934) is a prolific Greek writer and diplomat. A native of the northern Greek island of Thassos, Vassilikos grew up in Salonika, graduating from law school there before moving to Athens to work as a journalist. Due to his political activities, he was forced into exile following the 1967 military coup, where he spent the next seven years. Between 1981 and 1984 Vassilikos served as general manager of the Greek state television channel ET1. Since 1996, he has served as Greece's ambassador to UNESCO. As an author, Vassilikos has been highly prolific and widely-translated. He has published more than 100 books, including novels, plays and poetry. His best known work is the political novel Z (1967) (English language ISBN 0-394-72990-0 or ISBN 0-941423-50-6), which has been translated into thirty-two languages and was the basis of the award-winning film Z directed by Costa-Gavras (with music by Mikis Theodorakis). In 2008, Vassilikos was among to 41 other personalities of Greece that condemned the action of the withdrawal of Ersi Sotiropoulos's book Zigzag Through the Bitter-Orange Trees from the Greek school libraries, after the appeal of insurance measures by Konstantinos Plevris against to the Ministry of National Education of Greece for this issue. In 2001, Petros Tatoulis had asked the withdrawal of this specific book and he characterized this as pornographic due to the provocative sexual scenes that it contains. Description above from the Wikipedia article Vassilis Vassilikos, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For & Full Filmography7 Titles
Movie - 2019, 2h 15m • as Classy Bar Guest
A universal theme: a story of people trapped in an inhuman network of power. The brutal circle of the Eurogroup meetings, who impose on Greece the dictatorship of austerity, where humanity and compassion are utterly disregarded. A claustrophobic trap with no way out, exerting pressures on the protagonists which finally divide them.
Movie - 1971, 2h 15m • as Writer
A girl, whose father is from Greece, studies ancient art in France. The film was made for television but never broadcast for political reasons related to its portrayal of Greeks. A work print was screened in Belgium in 1971, and the film is now available in reconstructed form.
Movie - 1985, 2h 15m • as Man Outside the Phone Booth
An actor's troupe puts up a variety show.
Movie - 2005, 2h 15m • as Self
“I present the world with a very different approach, not as it was taught to us at school or in the army. I believe that each one has the right to see the society he lives in with his own particular view. I am, personally, more interested in Devil than God”- Elias Petropoulos. A restless and inquisitive spirit, a foe of academics and the status-quo, Petropoulos was the first folklorist in Greece, who dealt with social outcasts and described people and situations ignored by his country’s official history. Petropoulos takes us on a journey to unknown landscapes of our tradition and Greek-ness and acquaints us with all those people who belong to our social underground and who dominate his books. Rebetika musicians, bums, spivs, whores and homosexuals, people tormented and Greek-ness and acquaints us with all those people who belong to our social underground.
Movie - 2014, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Three friends from 60s Paris attempt a road trip to modern-day Greece, looping in and out of fantasy and questioning absolutely everything. A situation comedy and a coming-of-age fairy tale or, according to the director himself, "a film that can be heard". Starring Nikos Kouris, Doukissa Nomikou, Dimitris Katalifos and Pavlos Haikalis. Lifetime Achievement Award to Nikos Panagiotopoulos
Movie - 1966, 2h 15m • as Stavros
An artist returns to Santorini, where she spent her childhood, to face the ghosts of her past and her present.
Movie - 1979, 2h 15m • as The Poet
Returning to her small town, Anna, the widow of an Italian soldier whom she married during the occupation, revives her old teenage love in the face of a young worker, whom she marries with her stepdaughter, in order to keep him close to her. At the same time, a neighbour tries by all means to take her house to build a hotel.