Oddly enough, but the most “Athenian” Series removed for the last 2-3 years… French. Shooting mainly in the center of the capital from January to June 2022 “Greek salad”currently streaming on its platform Amazon Primedoes not simply have Athens as a backdrop or addition, as we have seen in other foreign productions that have visited our country in recent years, on the contrary, the city here takes on a leading role, participates in its own way, showing less touristic and more rough realism of its profile.

Metaxourgios, Kerameikos, Exarchia, Patisia: the Athenian quarters are easy to recognize when 26-year-old Tom (Aliosa Schneider) from Paris walks through them, arriving in Greece to oversee the sale of the property he inherited from his grandfather. Of course, his sister Mia (Megan Northam), who has been in Athens for several months, is supposed to participate in a student exchange program – in fact, she refused to become a member of an anarchist refugee-assisting collective. she lives in the occupation, and he earns a living working in a bar.

Series head Cédric Clapis did it again: 20 years ago, he made a rather similar youth story set in Barcelona (Spanish Restaurant), starring then-young Romain Duris and Kelly Reilly. roles. The two appear here as Tom and Mia’s separated parents. Back in Athens, where 90% of the series was filmed (there was also a part on Milos), we see how one night an international company of protagonists slip through a hole in the fence railing to climb Strefi hill and enjoy the view of the city. Of course, French manufacturers did not repair alone.

“Reading the script, we realized that it would be a very urban thing, so we needed appropriate locations. We found most of them in the center of Athens with a lot of variety; in the series we see Plaka and the Acropolis, but also less glamorous areas with old buildings full of graffiti,” says Greek co-producer Fenya Kosovitsa from Blonde. . It points to the very important and numerous participation of Greek investors in a project worth about 20 million euros. From chief production designer Anna Georgiadu and cast designer Marly Aliferi to cameramen, 70 of the 90 crew members came from our country.

Athens is taking the lead by showing less of its touristy and more of a crudely realistic profile.

Of course, there are several Greek actors mostly in supporting roles: Dimitris Kitsos, Ioanna Kolliopulou, Elsa Lekakou, Anastasis Laulakos, and Manolis Mavromatakis, who is excellent as a lawyer.

Another strength of the series is its very modern nature, which is mainly due to the fact that most of its writers are in their 20s and 30s. “I wanted the series to capture the spirit of that era, as I think we did 20 years ago with Barcelona. To do this, we needed dialogues of people of about the same age as the main characters, ”we read in an interview with Cedric Clapis.

living city

Remarkably, however, these young screenwriters, under the guidance of the seasoned Lola Doillon, seem to be quite…informed about Greek affairs, from the 2010 crisis to the other, older crisis of 1974. The Athens they represent is not entirely idyllic; a city deeply scarred by successive hardships, but still alive and well, able even to offer shelter and solace to those who need it most.

More generally, the politico-social references, while not overshadowing the light comedic mood, are mostly in line with what unites or divides today’s youth. Especially when they are found in Athens from all over the world – probably the “salad” in the name also refers to this – such as France, Greece, Eastern Europe, Syria, Afghanistan and other places.