Míkis Theodorakis

Sound

Míkis Theodorakis

Born 1925-07-29 · Chios, Greece

Michail "Mikis" Theodorakis (Greek: Μιχαήλ "Μίκης" Θεοδωράκης,29 July 1925 – 2 September 2021) was a Greek composer and lyricist credited with over 1,000 works. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Serpico (1973). He was a three time BAFTA nominee, winning for Z. For the score in the movie Serpico (1973), he earned Grammy nominations. Furthermore, for the unforgettable score to Zorba the Greek (1964), with its ‘Zorba’s Dance’, he was Golden Globe nominated. He composed the "Mauthausen Trilogy", also known as "The Ballad of Mauthausen", which has been described as the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust" and possibly his best work.Up until his death, he was viewed as Greece's best-known living composer. He was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize. Politically, he was associated with the left because of his long-standing ties to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). He was an MP for the KKE from 1981 to 1990. Despite this however, he ran as an independent candidate within the centre-right New Democracy party in 1989, in order for the country to emerge from the political crisis that had been created due to the numerous scandals of the government of Andreas Papandreou. He helped establish a large coalition between conservatives, socialists and leftists. In 1990 he was elected to the parliament (as in 1964 and 1981), became a government minister under Konstantinos Mitsotakis, and fought against drugs and terrorism and for culture, education and better relations between Greece and Turkey. He continued to speak out in favour of leftist causes, Greek–Turkish–Cypriot relations, and against the War in Iraq. He was a key voice against the 1967–1974 Greek junta, which imprisoned him and banned his songs.

Acting credits

Milva, diva per sempre poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Milva, diva per sempre

2024

The Rehearsal poster
5.4

An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.

The Rehearsal

1974

Sing For Me Arja poster
NR

An intimate portrait of the legendary Finnish singer and human rights advocate Arja Saijonmaa. The film traces her artistic journey and lifelong friendship with the Greek composer and freedom fighter Mikis Theodorakis, whose music and ideals shaped her mission. Through archival footage and present-day reflections, the film portrays a fearless artist and bridge-builder for peace.

Sing For Me Arja

2026

Ein Lied für Argyris poster
5.0

In 1944, four-year-old Argyris Sfountouris survived a brutal massacre committed by the German occupying forces, in which he lost his parents and thirty more relatives. The Greek orphan was sent to the Pestalozzi Children’s Village in Trogen, Switzerland and obtained a Ph.D in maths and astrophysics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. Now a 66-year-old man of winning charm and melancholy cheerfulness, Argyris has forever been tackling the horror he had to go through as a little boy. He has not tried to come to terms with it emotionally. Rather, he has tried to learn to live with it and to do his utmost to prevent it from happening again.

Ein Lied für Argyris

2006

An Buachaill Geal Gáireach/The Laughing Boy poster
NR

A trilingual feature documentary - An Buachaill Geal Gáireach/ The Laughing Boy is the remarkable and untold story of a song.

An Buachaill Geal Gáireach/The Laughing Boy

2023

Songs of Fire poster
6.6

A documentary about the resistance of the people against the millitary Greek junta.

Songs of Fire

1975

An All-Weather Man poster
NR

An approach to the phenomenon of Thanasis Vengos, the man and the artist, through film excerpts, testimonies of his collaborators and relatives and analyses of his symbolic role in the post-war modern Greek reality. Thanasis Vengos, for more than fifty years, was one of the most important actors in Greece. His films and lines are written in history, raising more than three generations of Greeks.

An All-Weather Man

2004

Mikis Theodorakis. Composer poster
8.0

The Greek composer takes the viewers on a journey through 70 years of his prolific musical career. He talks, analyzes and unfolds the inspirations of his works using a plethora of archive films which illustrate his explanations.

Mikis Theodorakis. Composer

2010

Evidence poster
5.5

A documentary presenting people and events connected with the most important political developments from the student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973 until the first year of democratic rule after the dictatorship collapsed in 1974.

Evidence

1975

Dance Fight Love Die: With Mikis On the Road poster
NR

An intimate look into the life of composer Mikis Theodorakis from 1987 until 2017: comprising three decades, four continents, 100 locations and 600 hours of film material. The film interweaves personal moments with archive footage, documentary recordings and fictional pieces, all accompanied by Theodorakis’ music in jazz, classic, electro and rap versions.

Dance Fight Love Die: With Mikis On the Road

2017