Stavros Tsiolis

Stavros Tsiolis was born in 1937 in Tripoli, the main town of Arcadia in the Peloponnese; Arcadia later became the landscape of several of his films. He studied cinema at the Stavrakos film school in Athens and, from 1958, worked for about ten years as an assistant director. Sources count between 54 and 56 films, many of them for Finos Film, the great studio of popular Greek cinema. In a 2018 interview he said that he had learned the tricks of filmmaking from the director Giannis Dalianidis.

His first feature, Ο μικρός δραπέτης (The Young Runaway), was made for Finos Film from his own script; it is usually dated 1968, though some filmographies list 1969. Thrillers and social dramas followed, among them Πανικός (Panic, 1969), and Κατάχρησις εξουσίας (Abuse of Power), dated 1970 or 1971, became an international success. Then, around 1971, he stepped away from directing. He returned only in 1985, with Μια τόσο μακρινή απουσία (Such a Long Absence).

From then on he made films regularly until 2004. He also wrote plays, collected in a volume called Θεατρικά (Plays), and lyrics for popular singers. His last film appeared in 2017, when he was eighty. Tsiolis died in Athens on 23 July 2019.

Μια τόσο μακρινή απουσία (Such a Long Absence, 1985) is a sombre drama about two sisters: after their father's death one, once a student in Germany, withdraws into herself, and her sister's attempt to protect her ends in her own decline. At the 1985 Thessaloniki festival it won a series of awards, including prizes for its actresses and for Giorgos Arvanitis's cinematography. Then his tone changed. Ακατανίκητοι εραστές (Invincible Lovers, 1988) follows a boy who runs away from an orphanage, roams the centre of Athens, takes the train to Tripoli and wanders through the mountains of Arcadia with a young woman whose car has broken down, until he returns to his grandmother's ruined house. It won the festival's best film and best director awards and was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Έρωτας στη χουρμαδιά (Love Under the Date-Tree, 1990) and Παρακαλώ, γυναίκες, μην κλαίτε (Please, Ladies, Don't Cry, 1992), written with Christos Vakalopoulos, also won awards in Thessaloniki. In the second, two icon restorers from Athens come to an Arcadian mountain village to repair the frescoes of a Byzantine church, then leave the work half finished when winter arrives. Ας περιμένουν οι γυναίκες (Let the Women Wait, 1998) sends three brothers-in-law around Lake Volvi while their families holiday on Thassos. With Γυναίκες που περάσατε από δω (Women Who Passed My Way, 2017) the last two form an informal “women” trilogy. His style relies on gentle humour, improvised dialogue, wandering and often non-professional actors.

Tsiolis's films are remembered for their unhurried wandering and quiet comedy. In December 2023 the Thessaloniki Cinematheque held a retrospective, Μια τόσο κοντινή παρουσία (A Presence So Close), which screened thirteen of his films and discussed their digitisation. The films are in Greek, but whole films full of improvised everyday dialogue are demanding even at C2, so work with short scenes and subtitles. Try this: read the Thessaloniki Film Festival's online summary of Ακατανίκητοι εραστές (Invincible Lovers), then retell the boy's route in Greek, from the orphanage through Athens and the train to Tripoli up into the mountains, using πρώτα, έπειτα, ώσπου (first, then, until). Finally, describe one place on the route in two sentences.

• He worked as an assistant director on more than fifty films before directing his own.
• Μια τόσο μακρινή απουσία (Such a Long Absence) was also the screen debut of the actress Pemi Zouni.
• A crowdfunding campaign for his last film raised only about €8,000 of its €60,000 target; the company Faliro House then helped complete it.
• He was eighty when Γυναίκες που περάσατε από δω (Women Who Passed My Way) was screened at the Thessaloniki festival in November 2017.