The best Nikos Kourkoulos’s movies

Aris, Nikos Kourkoulos, is released from prison after three years, and he turns up at Troumpa, a slum area in Piraeus. His purpose is not to settle his own accounts but to find out if Lola (Tzeni Karezi), a young woman who works at Stelios’ cabaret, was among the ones who betrayed him. Aris loves and cares about Lola and wants to get her out of there, but Stelios, who is also in love with her, assigns a thug to kill Aris.

A new, ambitious prosecutor undertakes a great trial for a murder trial but things get very confused. Instead of the accused, slowly proved that culprit is actually the wife of itself.

Angelos Kreouzis (Nikos Kourkoulos) survives a shipwreck and reveals to the committee in charge that the disaster was not an accident, but the consequence of the neglect of the ship by those responsible.

On the square of a village on a beautiful greek island there are two competing tavernas. One belongs to Aspasia and the other to Anargyros, who is a former Sergeant Major of the Greek Army. Their constant conflict doesn’t affect their children, who love and meet each other in secret. The local elections creates a new battlefield for the two taverna-owners, as they both run for office and promise everything to everyone.

A formerly heroic air force pilot, now an alcoholic loser with a failed marriage, is appointed by his older brother in the Ministry of Commerce to investigate a tragic plane crash that killed 28 people. As he goes through the motions in an alcoholic daze, he gradually comes to realize that the wreck was due to criminal negligence and failure to follow mandatory safety regulations.

A true story: The trial of judges Polizoidi and Tertseti for disobedience and their triumphant acquittal during the three men regency council, when king Othon of Greece was a minor. The cast of the film was enormous, with almost half of the theatrical people participating.

A police officer tries to discover the murderer of his brother, who was a pianist and a morphine. As a member of the Drug Enforcement Department, he tries to identify the head of a drug dealer gang. His unorthodox way of acting upsets his superiors, even though they allow him to continue his investigations. When the gang discovers that he is a police officer, he makes him a drug addict, but he manages to detoxify and eventually capture the gang's brain.

Vassilis Georgiades directed this tense drama, one of the final Greek films made before the 1967 coup which led to restrictions on film content. The plot concerns struggles between peasants and the wealthy estate-owners over division of land in the early part of the 20th century. This battle is contrasted with the rivalry of two brothers over a woman's affections. The performances are somewhat lacking, but Georgiades' assured direction and presentation of a little-known chapter of Greek history resulted in an Oscar nomination as "Best Foreign Film."

After his release from prison, Stathis visits a private investigator, Othonas, whom he had assigned many years ago to find his mother, who has been missing from the time of the German Occupation. When he meets Othonas, however, they quarrel because the detective hadn’t worked seriously enough on the case. Afterwards, Stathis takes control of his old gang again and sets up a few new scams, selling dreams and hopes to simple people. He soon realizes that he has lost his old love, Vana, who, while he was in prison, had become involved with his second-in- command, Michalis. Nevertheless, his bitterness is softened by Stella, Vana’s sister, who works at the Red Cross. He falls for her, and she responds in kind.

This film is a social comment of the times, exploring issues that centre around relationships and what was allowed and what was not allowed at the time (early 60s) in Greece. There are sub-plots also, mainly relating to the life of the poor city dwellers, social injustice and seeming double standards. Aliki Vougiouklaki is a poor young girl dreaming of a better life and the "handsome prince on a white stallion" who will deliver her from her miserable existence. She meets and falls in love with a young man (Nikos Kourkoulos) who also falls in love with her, but things are not as simple as they first seem. His past comes to haunt them with tragic consequences. Vassilis Diamantopoulos is excellent as the half-crazed old captain whose life strangely echoes that of young Aliki.