“I was picked up by Tsarouhis Agase in Thessaloniki and we walked from the cinema where he was watching Anna’s Consulate to the entire beach. “Let me tell you… Who is the one who sings at the beginning of the film?” asks me. “My father,” I tell him. Where does he sing? “In Agios Eleftherios, on the Field of Mars.” “Oh, I’m a fan of his! I go and listen to him!”. My father was one of the best singers who gathered every time for Vespers in the church he served. Then the church would pay for the tavern, and everyone would gather there and drink! I also made a documentary called Psalter, which is no longer available on ERT.”

Pantelis Voulgaris’ “hard drive” must be ordered by special order. To accommodate so many faces, so many narratives, wanderings, literal and metaphorical, so many gestures, so many glances, journeys…

Already counting 57 years behind the camera (since 1965, when he first starred in the short film The Thief), he recorded people and small and large incidents along the path of the director, focusing on what someone else might have missed. “Camera on top: straight to the soul” is his motto.

This year, the tributes to his work are numerous and touching. Since the recent Thessaloniki Festival and the honorary screening of “Everything is a Road” passing through the Thessaloniki Cinema and these days the Greek Cinema, where there is already a big retrospective (from the 8th of the month to the 15th) of his work with 12 feature films and four short films.

Pantelis Voulgaris sits opposite me in his house in Polydross Amarousiou, in his office, smoking one cigarette after another, and one of his cats is persistently and tirelessly watching us from the window. He says I listen and record his films in chronological order. “What gives him tribute?” is one of two questions I ask him: “Satisfaction and self-awareness for a long journey in which I met so many people. Our generation is slowly thinning… Angelopoulos, Panagiotopoulos, Nikolaidis, Marketaki, Liappa are gone, but we still have Perakis, Panousopoulos, Papastatis… There were many of us then, we worked hard, we achieved something…”.

“This is the merit of Dino Katsuridis, the father of Greek cinema. I called him “the night operator”. You could call him at any time of the day. He said to me: “You have written a short story about the consul. We’re going to turn it into a movie. We will also call on Commandareas to write the script.” That’s how it started. Written by Menis and Phoebe Angelopoulou as production manager.

“I’ll tell you how the furniture for the house was found: when I met a friend on the street – he was a film director, but did not make films – Yannis Lampakis, he always solved the problem for me. At Victoria Square, we accidentally crossed paths and he picked me up on the spot in a taxi and we drove to Ghazi to an uninhabited house, with furniture very suitable for the film. “Take everything,” he told me. It was his grandmother’s house. That’s how the movie was made.”

“When I returned from exile in Gyaros, I thought of writing a script about this experience. I thought of Makronisos. I was told that I should go to Lavrio and ask the head of the gendarmerie for permission to travel. I found him in the harbor eating stuffed tomatoes. I introduced myself as a director who also has a Jimmy the Tiger award (I always said so!), he asked me what I want to do on Makronissos, I answered him. “I don’t understand,” he told me. If you find a boat, go… And I went.”

“When Scorsese saw the movie, he said to me about Vengo, ‘What a great choice you made, man.

“We lived in Penteli, we had two children, and one night Ioanna (née Karistiani) told me the story of a couple, Eleni and Baby Golem. In the morning I woke up and said: “Let’s start the movie.” We went and found them, they had two small children, now their son is one of the best artists, Miltiadis Golem. They hesitated. “We are not the only ones,” they told us. “Maybe. But your story is representative and you speak for the whole world,” we insisted. We persuaded them. Ioanna spoke to Eleni with a tape recorder, and I spoke to Babis. wrote the script. I turned it over to the Center, we got funding. This is the second film I shot the finale of first. Bazaka is in an abandoned empty apartment with the Outcast and their child. At some point, he sits on the floor, lays out some photographs, and The film ends there. I started from there, because the Ministry of Culture allocated me an apartment and they told me that in 10 days they would come to do repairs. And Venizelos was filmed like that. First, the last shot, because only Venizelos, Minas Christidis, were ready with costumes. This is possible only in cinema and literature. Start from the end. I remember Circa told me about the “unruly states” that he started from the end. I will remember it. “

“I was told to see the young actor who played in Cannon Rumble at the Art Theater. We went with Kazan, who at that time arrived in Athens. The next morning, Stratos Tsorgzoglu, who found out about my interest, came to my office 10 minutes later, although he lived in Korydallos! Kazan told me that Montgomery Clift was on the steps of his house at dawn to see him and film him.

“Here comes Stratos, nice boy, tramp, I ask him if he knows football, yes, he says, let’s go across the street to Alan so I can check on him, he had no idea! I called Domasos and Antoniadis, we go out on the field, start playing ball, they also understand that he does not know.I told him that we will enroll him in a group for intensive training.I also found a football player who had his body from the Ionian Sea.So in the near fight, when I sent the ball under the feet of Stratos, in his place was a real football player.

“When Scorsese saw the film, he said to me about Wengo: “What a wonderful choice you have made for this man.” He, the loner who rides the train… The train was my school. I stopped in Marousi and on Saturdays or Sundays the night route was empty. And you could see a few melancholy women and men… I tortured Vengos a bit during filming… He had some elements that he repeated, like head movement. I cut it off. And he monologue: “You cut all the vengiks, Panteli! You will pay her! …”.

“I went to Sofia because I did not find affordable theaters here. They notify me that I have to select comps there. I arrive, and there is snow. Sofia froze. “Where will the meeting be?” I’m asking. “In the park,” they answer me. I see about 500 people gathered, mostly old people, in heavy coats and furs. “Are we going to make a choice here? Well, they do everything to me. Let’s start shooting!”

“We had a feeling that Acropolis would be a hit at the box office. Katsuridis, you can imagine, the director of photography of the film, who also gave me the equipment, didn’t want to be paid. Ask for percentages. It comes out in the first week and goes badly … “.

“One afternoon, when I was out of work, there was a knock on my office door and a gentleman came in. “I want to confess to you the following: my son came to the casting in “Shirt 9”. He killed himself on the watchtower. I don’t have his photo. If you took a picture of it… Please… I never forgot that. I went to Thessaloniki and took it. This is the first story with Dimitris Kataleifos.”

“Relive the adventure in a movie? I don’t rule out…”

“The acquaintance with Kazan was indirect. He hosted us on our first trip to America at his home, he was a tribute to my films at the Museum of Modern Art. He also set up a meeting with Scorsese. A workaholic, he worked endless hours. He watched all my films, asked, observed, commented. For Brides, he suggested that Ioanna write the script. When he saw Victoria Charalambida at the audition, he said: “She will play. This is an unpredictable choice, asymmetrical. The rest are natural choices, expected.” My colleagues were very hesitant, they were worried about Victoria’s teeth.

2009: Deep Soul

“In Brides, I learn from my friends in Kastoria that there are abandoned villages in Grammos. I go there and see villages of Slavic speakers who left after the Civil War and never returned. When I wrote the script for the film, the producers had doubts about the filming location. “I don’t feel like a director, but a broker,” I told Joanna. “I show them places and no one buys!” He was taken in by Giannis Iakovidis, a producer who also has a mania. He even built a dirt road so we could get to the place.”

2013: Little England

“It’s a gift from Andros. We’ve had a house there for many years. In general, I don’t have a very good relationship with the islands. Although I’m from Samos and Naxos. My parents left early, I had no connections. In the summer I worked as an assistant to Fino, films were made in the summer to go to Thessaloniki in the fall. I didn’t know how to swim in the sea. In the occupation childhood, I also had lymphadenopathy, and the doctor advised “away from the sea. All Andros played in the film, and Andriotes financed it. All of them opened their at home, and that’s how we created the basis of the film.”

2017: Last note

“It was a duty. Questions I have about what I experienced. In 1940, when I was born, the Second World War began. As a child, I experienced the Civil War. Then successive political changes followed. A few years ago, I found a booklet with Cretan mantinades, in the introduction of which it was written: “Many thanks to the little 16-year-old boy Napoleon Sukatzidis, who collected the mantinades.” This was a boy who came from Pontus, he was not a relative of Crete.

“The book was written by Maria Ludakis, sister of Hara Ludakis, who was a great love of Sukatzidis. At the time, I was surprised that a 16-year-old had a penchant for collecting mandinads. A political prisoner since 1936, Sukatzidis was in the Haidari camp and, as he studied German, took over the role of interpreter from Captain Karl Fischer.”

2023: What’s your next film?

“These two years of coronavirus, with health problems for both of us, Joanna and me, I left. I was sitting in my house. I grew up… Relive the adventure from the movie? But now, when the retrospective is being organized, and I saw the glow in the eyes of the newcomers, I say, I will collect my archive, see if anything comes out … A film? What can I say … I do not rule out … “.