10 Best Greek Movies to Watch First

10 Essential Greek Films

Ranked native cinema in Greece’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. The Travelling Players

   Ο θίασος · 1975

   A troupe of actors touring the Greek countryside from 1939 into the early 1950s tries to stage a folk play amid war, occupation, and civil conflict, their own lives echoing the nation's turbulent history. Theo Angelopoulos's monumental, elliptical epic.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: Theo Angelopoulos's Greek historical epic and a central work of New Greek Cinema.

2. 

   2. The Ogre of Athens

   Ο Δράκος · 1956

   On New Year's Eve, a meek bank clerk is mistaken for a feared crime boss who rules the Athens underworld, and he warily plays along with the misunderstanding — a small lie that begins to spiral. A darkly comic classic of Greek cinema.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: Nikos Koundouros’s expressionist noir transformed a mistaken-identity crime story into one of the defining visions of postwar Athens and a foundational work of modern Greek cinema.

3. 

   3. Dogtooth

   Κυνόδοντας · 2009

   On an isolated estate, a controlling father and mother raise their grown children in total confinement, feeding them a warped vocabulary and bizarre rules to keep the outside world at bay — until a stranger's intrusion cracks the illusion. Yorgos Lanthimos's chilling, deadpan provocation.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.

4. 

   4. Sweet Bunch

   Γλυκιά Συμμορία · 1983

   A gang of alienated young Athenians drifts into a world of surveillance, crime, and violence, chasing meaning and money in the margins of the city. A stylish, nihilistic cult drama.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: A Greek Film Critics Association canon selection and defining work of late twentieth-century Greek cinema.

5. 

   5. Evdokia

   Ευδοκία · 1971

   A tough sergeant and a prostitute fall passionately in love and marry, but her past and the expectations of the world around them strain the bond between them. A raw, intense drama considered a Greek classic.

6. 

   6. The Photograph

   Η φωτογραφία · 1987

   A Greek immigrant in Paris spins an elaborate, destructive lie around a woman in a photograph, a deception that entangles a naive newcomer and spirals toward tragedy. A dark, unsettling drama.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: A Greek critics-canon film about migration, identity, and the Greek diaspora.

7. 

   7. The Counterfeit Coin

   Η Κάλπικη Λίρα · 1955

   A single counterfeit gold sovereign passes from hand to hand, linking four bittersweet stories of ordinary people in Athens who are touched by greed, love, and folly. A beloved Greek anthology film.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: A classic Greek anthology and enduring national-cinema landmark.

8. 

   8. Rembetiko

   Ρεμπέτικο · 1983

   Spanning the early decades of the 20th century, this drama follows the hard lives of the musicians who created rembetiko — the soulful, smoke-filled Greek blues — through the eyes of a fierce female singer. A vivid musical epic.

9. 

   9. Reconstruction

   Αναπαράσταση · 1970

   When an immigrant returning to his remote Greek village is murdered by his wife and her lover, an investigator and a film crew try to piece together how it happened. Theo Angelopoulos's austere, layered debut about truth and reenactment.

10. 

    10. Stella

    Στέλλα · 1955

    A free-spirited Athens cabaret singer who refuses to be tamed by any man falls for a young footballer, but her fierce independence and his possessiveness set them on a collision course. Michael Cacoyannis's landmark drama starring Melina Mercouri.