Stavros Tornes

A film director, his relationships with women and the expression of his bitterly emotions about cinema and Greece

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"The Poor Hunter of the South" is the title of the film Stavros Tornes never got to make, rightfully featured alongside his name on this documentary by Stavros Kaplanidis ("Canteen", "Play it Again, Christos"). The film traces his imagery, listens for his whispers and infiltrates the memories of his closest friends, looking for clues in order to piece together the portrait of a filmmaker who made something out of nothing and stayed true to himself and his vision until the very end. Besides Tornes' own films, this documentary includes footage from films where the "poor hunter" appeared as an actor, like "The Secret of the Red Cloak" by Kostas Fotinos, "Kierion" by Dimos Theos and " Allonsanfan" by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.

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The chronicle of Loukas Kostoglou, a publisher devoted to poetry, and Marios, his assistant, who is love with Nina.

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The portrait of an Andalusian musician who wanders around Epirus and socializes with the strangest characters in the area.

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During its 85-minute running time, this jarring experimental film takes a no-holds-barred look at the way women have been treated and depicted in Western art.

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An actor's troupe puts up a variety show.

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Dimitris Lembessis gets out of prison, pays his friend Stratos a visit and kills him. With Ilias he organizes a big jewel heist. During the operation they discover that someone has ratted on them. In their attempt to escape, a police officer is killed and Ilias is mortally wounded...

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In order to buy a horse, a man wanders in the bazaars of Thessaly. His journey will take him further than he imagines, as old prophets, forgotten witches and vampire princes will find himself on his way.

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Stavros Tornes directs this documentary centered on the poet Nikos Kavvadias and his poetry.

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The charismatic Snaporaz encounters an alluring woman on a train and pursues her through a forest. He ends up at a hotel populated by women gathered for a feminist conference, where he is an unwanted presence. Snaporaz soon discovers he’s entered a phantasmagoric world where women have taken power.

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In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the peasants, and to overcome his isolation.

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Stavros and Charlotte - i.e. the director and his partner in life and art, Charlotte van Gelder - are wandering the streets of a burdensome reality like immigrants, tracing the world around them through friendships, journeys and political quests. Made with minimal means with a few rolls of black and white film they managed to scrape together, this is a thoroughly unconventional film that defies traditional narrative structures, spectacularly revealing the director's true vision: a primordial cinema full of imagery that comes out of nowhere and communicates freely, like a small wonder. A large slice of the international film critic community - including Frenchman Louis Skorecki who described the film as a comet - will adore "Coatti" and continue to support Tornes' lonely path until the end.

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Athens 1967. The political assassinations and the background between the government and foreign powers, on the occasion of the "Polk Case", where an innocent leftist was convicted for the murder of an American journalist in Greece.

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After the 1815 Restoration, an aging revolutionary finds himself reluctantly involved in an attempted insurrection in Southern Italy while growing increasingly disillusioned with his cause.

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Lucky Luciano is one of the bosses of the Mafia. He orders the slaughter of 40 other responsibles, therefore becoming the only boss. But a few years later he is put into jail. In 1946, he got a pardon and is sent back to Sicilia. There, he begins becoming one of the chief of the Mafia. The US Army seems to refrain from interfering.

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A girl, whose father is from Greece, studies ancient art in France. The film was made for television but never broadcast for political reasons related to its portrayal of Greeks. A work print was screened in Belgium in 1971, and the film is now available in reconstructed form.

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Time after time, soldiers of the Italian Army are forced to leave their mountain trenches in attempts to storm an enemy fortress, always with the same disastrous results. As casualties mount, indignation spreads among the rank and file. Disturbed by his superiors' decisions, Lieutenant Sassu is led to question the purpose of war and reconsider where his real duties lie.

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Thirty-year-old lower middle class Dimitris, faint-hearted and not particularly ambitious, is ready to jump at the opportunity that will get him handsomely provided. He wavers between yesterday, the German occupation nightmare and his love debut with a neighbour and contemporary, fluid reality. He meets Thaleia, a rich woman his age, who frequents the same night club as him, but his daily routine is invariably the same. The closure of the small industry in Drapetsona, where he used to work for the last 8 years, and his relationship with Maria confront him with a different reality. Maria is a progressive, evening school teacher, full of dreams.

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A summer night in 1944 in Kokkinia, Kosmas, a black marketeer, is out with his friends before he is arrested by the German patrol. The Germans push him to turn in people from the Resistance, or they will execute him.

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During the cold spring of 1941, with Greece already under German occupation, a long-suffering squad of war-battered soldiers receives orders from the headquarters in Athens to fall back, leaving behind the Albanian Front. As the men retreat through the snow-covered landscapes of the bomb-scarred Greek countryside, the terrifying certainty that nothing will ever be the same again crushes their weary human souls.

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Vassos and Malamo, the prettiest girl in the village, are in love and plan to get married. However, Panos, Vassos' brother, tries to seduce Malamo when, unfortunately for him, the local bandit appears.

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Tonis and Rena are loved, but their uncles have objections, as they are deadly competitors in the field of swimwear marketing. Rena's uncle promotes a modern swimsuit, while Toni's uncle is a fan of the classic line. The two young men decide to steal ..

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Dimitris and Maria postpone their wedding, as the declaration of war will separate them. Dimitris will fight on the front lines and later join the Resistance. The deputy leader of his resistance organization is fatally wounded in a sabotage operation against the Germans. The revelation that he is Maria's father, who had been searching for her for many years, brings pain to the already troubled couple. But the war will end and the two young people will finally have the chance to live happily together.

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The film depicts all forms of traditional fishing and the life of fishermen of the Molyvos community on the Greek island of Lesvos, as it transposes us to island life of 1961, through a series of images from another era. Fishermen sail in the open sea on a purse seine.

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Two young people are trying to make their common life although have to face the obstacle of an authoritarian mother. The young man, trying to overcome his financial difficulties, will be involved with a suspected man in a hypothetical big bay.

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A young actress who is about to star in a play by the writer Palla stays at the home of Pavlos, an actress who was left paralysed shortly before performing in Palla's play "The Red Cloak." The young actress is found murdered, and a police officer conducts a thorough investigation to find the culprit.

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The chronicle of Loukas Kostoglou, a publisher devoted to poetry, and Marios, his assistant, who is love with Nina.

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The portrait of an Andalusian musician who wanders around Epirus and socializes with the strangest characters in the area.

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An old man, cut off from his future and his past, brings a young taxi driver into his game. The two meet Karkalou, a crazy prostitute, whom the former once loved madly and the latter will soon love.

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In order to buy a horse, a man wanders in the bazaars of Thessaly. His journey will take him further than he imagines, as old prophets, forgotten witches and vampire princes will find himself on his way.

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Stavros Tornes' last film in Italy bears a title that fits the director like a glove, especially when it comes to his ability to start out from a non-fiction perspective and descend into full-blown fantasy. A boat going up the river, a fire in the heart of the city and a man wondering around the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna, are some of the elements that comprise "Eksopragmatiko", a mournful movie (according to the director), which requires viewers to keep an open mind and an open heart.

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Stavros and Charlotte - i.e. the director and his partner in life and art, Charlotte van Gelder - are wandering the streets of a burdensome reality like immigrants, tracing the world around them through friendships, journeys and political quests. Made with minimal means with a few rolls of black and white film they managed to scrape together, this is a thoroughly unconventional film that defies traditional narrative structures, spectacularly revealing the director's true vision: a primordial cinema full of imagery that comes out of nowhere and communicates freely, like a small wonder. A large slice of the international film critic community - including Frenchman Louis Skorecki who described the film as a comet - will adore "Coatti" and continue to support Tornes' lonely path until the end.

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Staros Tornes' first non-fiction short combines a beautifully poetic text with a series of tracking shots in the streets of Rome, set to music by Charlotte Van Gelder. Somewhere between documentary and poetic essay, this film was born out of Tornes' love for Africa and the Orients, his never-ending agony over bloody revolutions and his passionate use of cinema to approach the Other

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A poetic documentary about the island of Santorini.

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