AGGELOS: Queering the Greek melodrama.

We chat with Panos Poimenidis about seminal queer Greek film Aggelos.

Dec 21, 2022

Pic still from Aggelos (1982).

For the latest episode of the Longtime Companion podcast, we discuss Greek film Aggelos. The episode is a second instalment of what I would loosely call a series focused on films and cinematic themes from Greece and Cyprus.

Aggelos was released in 1982 by the director Giorgos Katakouzinos who reinterpreted the real-life events of a murder of a young gay man by his partner a few years prior to the film. Par from the tokenistic queer characters that frequented Greek cinema narratives from the 50s all the way to the 80s and 90s, predictably flamboyant and outlandish portrayals, mostly there for comedic prop and ridicule; it wasn’t until Aggelos the first outright gay film, where a gay character and a gay relationship took centre stage.

It’s a sombre melodrama where true to form see tragic plot points and kitchen-sink settings reflect critical contemplations of the society Aggelos lives in. When the film came out, it sold 500,000 tickets in its first week and for the period of a year that followed its release it was calculated that 1 in 20 Greeks had seen it. And yet despite its apparent success and its popularity in the canon of Greek cinema, I do have to say it was very hard to find a copy of this film physically or digitally. So an admission here, that myself and my guest had to resort to streaming it illegally for the episode.

The melodarma genre was in decline in Greek cinema by the time of the film’s release. The Hollywood inspired melodramas that dominated Greek film throughout the 50s, 60s and early 70s, in the 80s saw a major shift with the advent of VHS player and VHS marking a trend towards comedy and action. It is likely that Katakouzinos was taking his cues from German auteur Reiner Werner Fassbinder whose melodramas proliferated throughout the 70s, often unabashedly portraying vivid queer characters, way ahead of their time.

An academic paper by Spyridon Chairetis published by University of Oxford astutely describes Aggelos as a film ‘that replays and simultaneously rejects heteronormative rules. On the one hand, the film reproduces hegemonic ideology, culminating with a tragic ending very much in the vein of Hollywood melodramas on the other hand, there are daringly queer moments and scenes where its characters adopt resistant, emancipatory, and non-normative modes of ‘living’

To talk to me about the film I invited Panos Poimenidis. Panos is the one half of Studio Prokopiou who along with his partner Phillip create photography and art inspired by film, theatre, mythology, the club scene and social media. I had the chance to talk to Panos all about his work and I would urge you to check them out here.

I enjoyed our conversation, very much. Panos was able to give me a very thorough and personal take on the film. Even if his own experiences growing up queer in Greece were 20 plus years later, he could still see the remnants of the topics addressed in Aggelos still lingering within Greek society to this day.

Please note there are spoilers in our discussion. Hope you enjoy listening!

Links to Listen: