Best Greek documentary movies

Τα μυστήρια της Ελλάδας (1994)

Arte Povera - The Documentary (2023)

Fotis Georgiadis attempts to combine rap music with opera influences. The making of everybody loves Greek rap wants to see.

Dance Fight Love Die: With Mikis On the Road (2017)

An intimate look into the life of composer Mikis Theodorakis from 1987 until 2017: comprising three decades, four continents, 100 locations and 600 hours of film material. The film interweaves personal moments with archive footage, documentary recordings and fictional pieces, all accompanied by Theodorakis’ music in jazz, classic, electro and rap versions.

Backwards to their Sources (0)

This is a melancholic story of land. The mountains are accompanied by white clouds, while dots of trees and bushes are welcomed in the feast, somewhere in the south of Greece.

1968 (2018)

A.E.K., the well-known Greek basketball team founded in 1924 by refugees from Constantinople, after 44 years, beats SLAVIA of Prague and wins the European Cup.

Evidence (1975)

A documentary presenting people and events connected with the most important political developments from the student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973 until the first year of democratic rule after the dictatorship collapsed in 1974.

Newborn Sky: Women in the Democratic Army of Greece (2021)

After the liberation of Athens from German occupation in 1944, a new era followed in Greece. Conflicts broke out between those who had fought against the Germans and those who had collaborated with them and the British Army. After the military defeat of the former, the signing of the Treaty of Varkiza signaled the start of the White Terror. Houses were set on fire, people were raped, beaten, murdered, imprisoned, and exiled. All this drove the persecuted men and women to take to the mountains, where they would form the cornerstone of the Democratic Army of Greece. In this documentary, the women fighters of the Democratic Army tell their stories. Women who were persecuted, women who consciously chose to fight, women who were conscripted to the cause, together they constitute the mosaic of experience of a civil war.

Amnesia Diaries (2012)

The director creates a parallel of thirty years of her life (mid-1980s to 2012) and the evolution of her country, Greece. The loss of her lover, revived in archive photographs and 8 mm movies, is the background for her despair facing contemporaneous Greece, seen by her in the streets and viewed on television broadcasts from American and Russian channels.

Eleftherios Venizelos (1966)

The Trial of the Junta: Korydallos 75 (1981)

The Trial of the Torturers - EAT ESA 1967-1974 (1982)

Documentary of the trial of the torturers of the Greek junta

The Aegean Tragedy (1961)

Documentary on the Greek history of the first half of the 20th century, from the Balkan wars until December events, with a special emphasis on the Asia Minor Catastrophe and its aftermath, through filmed documents by Joseph Hep, George Prokopiou, Achilleas Mandras, Philopimenas Finos, Gabriel Loggos and Kyriakos Kourbetis.

Erechtheion and Time (2001)

Erechtheion and Time directed by A. Drakopoulou. Produced by Acropolis Restoration Service in 2001.

WHEN STELLA MET MPOAL (2023)

STELLA HISTORY STUDENT JOINS A THEATER GROUP IN THE CITY AND HEARS ABOUT THE THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED IS SEARCHING AND INTERESTED IN IT..

Acropolis of Athens (1960)

Educational documentary by Robiros Manthoulis, Fotis Mestheneou and Iraklis Papadakis, shot under the archaeological guidance of Yiannis Miliadis, Director of the Acropolis Museum, who is also the narrator. It is a wonderfully consistent mapping of the Acropolis space, in the objects, the spaces, the iconography, the connection with history and tradition. From the opening moments and the presentation of the complexity and specificity of the location of the Acropolis, and through the presentation of every impressive detail, but also of a wider artistic context, the film takes us on a journey through time connecting the centuries of glory of Athenian history with today, with the monument framed not only as the shining relic of an old civilization, but also in its current location, above a large, modern city.

Rom (1989)

In his film, Menelaos Karamaghiolis attempts to trace the evolution of the gypsy race in Europe, particularly in Greece, through four different points of view. These are expressed in the narrations of four people: the Teacher, the Photographer, Tamara, the old gypsy lady and the young girl Aima.

The Archaeologist (2015)

In the final 'battle' of her career, a determined archaeologist - who has dedicated all her life to protecting the cultural and natural environment of the land - has 2 months to salvage as much as possible from an archaeological dig which is planned to be flooded during the construction process of a new dam by the Greek National Power Company.

Debtocracy (2011)

Debtocracy seeks the causes of the Greek debt crisis and proposes solutions sidelined by the government and the dominant media. It follows countries like Ecuador that created debt Audit Commissions and tracks this process in Greece.

Catastroika (2012)

The creators of Debtocracy, analyze the shifting of state assets to private hands. They travel round the world gathering data on privatization and search for clues on the day after Greece's massive privatization program.

Avant-Drag! (2024)

Avant-Drag! paints portraits of ten drag artists of varying gender expressions and sexualities who take to the streets of Athens to query, problematise and (yes, please!) undermine social strictures. Employing wildly imagined personas – like riot housewives and Albanian turbo-folk girls – who perform acts as revolutionary as praising abortion and as charming as drawing childish pictures, these artists call for social justice by taking aim at conservatism, patriarchy, patriotism, racism and sexism.

Departhenon (2021)

After some hiking, two male members of a company remember their past erotic adventures as an ex-couple. The company decides to bring them back their lost eroticism and boldness. While the company realizes its plans it creates a context of sensuality and a symbloic fissure at a space which is agressively charged with heteronormal and nationalistic values, so that the saught eroticism can have a place to flourish.

In-Mates (2020)

In the course of several months, a camera is recording the relationships built between dogs and inmates, during an innovative program introduced by the non-profit organization Save A Greek Stray, and executed (in a pilot phase) at the Women’s Prison of Eleona-Thebes. In an effort to escape from their past, and follow a new way of life, dogs (Toska, Montecristo, Charlize, Richard), and inmates (Antonia and Katerina), are determined to confront their fears and seize a second chance in life.

Laughing in Afghanistan (2023)

Karim Asir, the Afghan Charlie Chaplin, in the midst of bombs and disasters, gives performances using laughter as his only weapon. When the Taliban takeover, Karim is threatened with death. After a series of adversities, he manages to arrive in Greece. We follow his life adventure, and through his story, we explore the issue of laughter – in Afghanistan and beyond.

Sugartown: The Bridegrooms (2006)

In the Greek village of Sugar Town, men have a serious problem. Women are fleeing the area in search of work or marriage in the big cities, leaving them behind - and lonely. Fully aware of the men’s dire situation, the astute mayor of Sugar Town promises to find them wives in Russia, as part of his re-election campaign. Against the odds and local traditions which frown upon mixed marriages, the bridegrooms from SugarTown set out on a great journey to find their future brides and happiness.

Betty (1979)

Between fiction and documentary, this film shows a portrait of the persona of a transsexual that goes far beyond simplistic voyeurism. The film offers a respectful image of masculine sexuality, with a character ahead of its time, through the telling of Betty about his childhood, daily life, pleasure, self-esteem and social marginalization.

Samuel Modiano, The Mission: From Rhodes To Auschwitz (2019)

Documenting the testimony of one of the last surviving Rhodeslis (Rhodian Jews), Sami Modiano, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau, this film assumes the tasks of defending historical memory, humanity and dignity.

The World's First Computer (2012)

A historical and scientific investigation telling the extraordinary story of how the ancient Greeks built a computer 2,000 years ago. Set against the glorious backdrop of classical Greece, this Grierson-nominated film follows the international research team who finally solved the puzzle of the ‘Antikythera Mechanism’. Scientific breakthroughs illustrated with stunning graphics and reenactments, reveal a trail of mysterious numbers that solved the conundrum of the gears – a real life Da Vinci code set in ancient Greece.

Spiros and the Circle of Death (2020)

Spiros, a motorcycle acrobat of the Circle of Death, lives a nomadic life together with his family, his caravan, and a few acrobats who often abandon him. His dad was a legend of the Circle of Death and so were his uncle and his grandfather – a family tradition for over 50 years! Will Spiros manage to make ends meet, and, furthermore, is this vanishing profession going to get a second wind? Are his sons willing to take the wheel? A human portrait of an old-school lover of speed in a rapidly changing world.

Athens 2004: Olympic Opening Ceremony (Games of the XXVIII Olympiad) (2004)

With the Olympics returning to Greece, the opening ceremony of Athens 2004 sought to show the entire development of the Olympics over the centuries, until arriving at the modern Olympics.

90 Years of PAOK: Nostalgia for the Future (2016)

A documentary that chronicles the 90 years of history of the Greek sports club PAOK, not only in athletic but also in social and historical terms.