Κώστας Φέρρης

Costas Ferris (1935) was born in Cairo, Egypt. As a Greek of Cypriot and Lebanese origins, his education was oriented towards the international scope, but firmly rooted in his Greek heritage. He studied at the Ambetios School and the Drama School of Takis Tsakonas in Cairo, as well as at the Higher School of Cinematography in Athens, and the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1957, he settled in Greece permanently. He worked for the first time in the film industry on Nikos Koundouros’s movie The River, and ended up working as an assistant director in over 60 fiction films, while simultaneously taking up rebetiko music for research purposes. His first short film, titled Ta matoklada sou lampoun (1961), was banned due to the censorship rules of the time. In 1965, he completed his first feature, titled Merikes to protimoun haki. From 1967 until 1973, during his exile in Paris, he actively participated in the movement of May 1968. The script of a film (Le Sang), an opera (L'Opéra des oiseaux) and a rock-oratorio (666 Apocalypse) mark the end of his Parisian period, which was enriched further by encountering many internationally acclaimed creators and artists, such as Volker Schlöndorff and Werner Herzog. After his return to Greece in 1973, he directed television series, music programs, investigative and educational films, as well as various documentaries. His film Rebetiko (1983) won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival (1984), the Special Jury Award at the Valencia Film Festival (1984), and the Grand Prix at the Alexandria Film Festival (1985).