Greece honored the memory of Theodoros Angelopoulos, one of its greatest filmmakers acknowledged worldwide, three years after his death with a four-day screening festival in his beloved city of Larissa, in the central region of Thessaly this week.
A series of special screenings of his films was hosted in the cultural center of the city. In addition, the festival marked the first panorama of Greek cinema "Theodoros Angelopoulos" which will be organized every year commemorating famous Greek directors and their work.
"We wanted to honor Angelopoulos, as he loved Larissa and used to visit it since 1970," Theodora Moukouli, president of the city's film center, told Xinhua.
"He had many friends here, he shot many scenes of his movies in the suburbs of Larissa and there are people who remember having marathon conversations with him after watching his films," she added.
Angelopoulos, considered one of the leaders in contemporary European cinematography, had won awards in film festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice and across the world for his work over four decades for films such as Eternity and a Day, Alexander the Great, Ulysses' Gaze and Landscape in the Mist.
"With his movies "Reconstitution" (1970), which was presented in France, and "The Travelling Players" (1975), which had a warm welcome in Cannes Festival, Angelopoulos exceeded the borders of Greece from the beginning of his career," Maria Komninou, professor and general secretariat of the Greek Film Archive, told Xinhua.
He died on Jan. 24, 2012, after being hit by a motorcycle while shooting his latest film The Other Sea in Athens.
Eleni Karaindrou, one of his dearest friends and brilliant Greek composer who collaborated with Angelopoulos in eight of his movies from 1983 to 2012, feels grateful for having had the opportunity to work with the "poet of cinema," she said speaking to Xinhua.
"He had a sharp eye and was ahead of his time. His work touched sensitive issues like the story of the immigrants and the plague of the slave traders. His absence is enormous," she said.