Constantine Giannaris

Directing

Constantine Giannaris

Born 1959-01-01 · Sydney, Australia

Konstantinos Giannaris (Sydney, 1959) is a Greek film director. Born in Sydney. He studied economics, history and philosophy at Keele and Birmingham Universities in Britain. His film career began in England, where he completed short, low-budget independent films. He was involved in the 1982 experimental English documentary The Revenge of the Teenage Perverts in which gay teenagers ask English heterosexuals about their views on homosexuality. His first Greek film, A Place in the Sun in 1995, won the Best Greek Film Award at the Drama Short Film Festival. It was followed in the same year by the film Close to Paradise and in 1998 by the film From the Edge of the City, which won the second prize for Best Film of the Ministry of Culture. In 2001 he filmed Dekapentaugustos and in 2004 Homer. His films have been screened at many international film festivals and forums. His first feature film Near Paradise was financed and shot in London. Today he works and lives in Athens. He has openly declared that he is homosexual and an atheist.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Hostage poster
5.6

Inspired by the real-life story of a bus hijacking in Northern Greece, HOSTAGE explores the sensitive issue of Greek-Albanian relations through a young Albanian who takes over an intercity bus. Upon hijacking the bus, he takes the seven passengers hostage and demands a ransom of half and million euro, and safe passage to his homeland of Albania. Surrounded by police, the bus trundles towards the Albanian border and the tension mounts until the final harrowing conclusion.

Hostage

2005

Hostage poster
5.6

Inspired by the real-life story of a bus hijacking in Northern Greece, HOSTAGE explores the sensitive issue of Greek-Albanian relations through a young Albanian who takes over an intercity bus. Upon hijacking the bus, he takes the seven passengers hostage and demands a ransom of half and million euro, and safe passage to his homeland of Albania. Surrounded by police, the bus trundles towards the Albanian border and the tension mounts until the final harrowing conclusion.

Hostage

2005

Visions of Europe poster
5.3

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Visions of Europe

2004

Visions of Europe poster
5.3

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Visions of Europe

2004

One Day in August poster
5.7

Middle August in Athens. Three families, living in a three storey building, leave for their summer vacations. Everyone is wishing for a miracle to happen this summer. In the meantime, a drifter breaks into their apartments and rummages their personal belongings, thus unfolding hidden secrets.

One Day in August

2002

One Day in August poster
5.7

Middle August in Athens. Three families, living in a three storey building, leave for their summer vacations. Everyone is wishing for a miracle to happen this summer. In the meantime, a drifter breaks into their apartments and rummages their personal belongings, thus unfolding hidden secrets.

One Day in August

2002

Spring Awakening poster
4.6

Contemporary Athens: A gang of teenage thieves and romantic anarchists test the limits of their youthful rebellion and play out their own tragic spring awakening against the backdrop of a dying city.

Spring Awakening

2016

Spring Awakening poster
4.6

Contemporary Athens: A gang of teenage thieves and romantic anarchists test the limits of their youthful rebellion and play out their own tragic spring awakening against the backdrop of a dying city.

Spring Awakening

2016

From the Edge of the City poster
5.9

Minority-group Greeks from an outer suburb of Athens struggle with their life on society's fringe and exploitation of one another.

From the Edge of the City

1998

From the Edge of the City poster
5.9

Minority-group Greeks from an outer suburb of Athens struggle with their life on society's fringe and exploitation of one another.

From the Edge of the City

1998

Jimmy Somerville: The Video Collection 1984/1990 (Featuring Bronski Beat and The Communards) poster
8.0

Collection of music videos by Jimmy Somerville, both as solo artist as well as with the bands Bronski Beat and The Communards.

Jimmy Somerville: The Video Collection 1984/1990 (Featuring Bronski Beat and The Communards)

1990

Constantine Giannaris: The Short Films poster
5.0

Three short films from Greece's greatest filmaker with Introduction to each by the filmaker: Caught Looking, Noth of Votrex, A place in the Sun.

Constantine Giannaris: The Short Films

1994

3 Steps to Heaven poster
3.8

A bereaved woman adopts multiple disguises to track down the last three people to see her boyfriend before he died.

3 Steps to Heaven

1995

3 Steps to Heaven poster
3.8

A bereaved woman adopts multiple disguises to track down the last three people to see her boyfriend before he died.

3 Steps to Heaven

1995

A Place in the Sun poster
4.9

Ilias, a young man of Athens, meets Panagiotis, a new-comer from Albania and falls in love with him. He pays dearly for the relationship.

A Place in the Sun

1994

North of Vortex poster
3.8

A gay poet heads west from New York City in his convertible. He picks up a muscular sailor who's bisexual; then Jackie, a waitress at a diner, joins them. Jackie is attracted to the poet who rebuffs her romantic gestures; rejection fuels her continued interest in him. The sailor and the poet are bonded by sex, but the sailor's frank advances to Jackie make him uninteresting to her. The sailor can get violent, the poet is passive, Jackie is glamorous and detached. The landscape changes, they stop in cities and in the desert. They reach a lake. Who will be left out of a final pairing?

North of Vortex

1991

Trojans poster
4.3

A brief look at the life of the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy.

Trojans

1990

Trojans poster
4.3

A brief look at the life of the Greek poet Constantine Cavafy.

Trojans

1990

Caught Looking poster
4.1

Caught Looking sees a lonely gay man attempt to explore his sexual fantasies with the help of an interactive computer game, guiding his virtual reality persona through a series of potential encounters (naval rough trade, a moustachioed 'clone', a 50s muscle man) while offering wry commentary on the shifting landscape of queer cruising. But is it love he’s really looking for?

Caught Looking

1991

Man at Sea poster
2.0

Alex a captain with sad past saves thirty teens Afghan refugees. With tension constantly increasing, Alex tries to tackle the company's and crew pressures.

Man at Sea

2011

Man at Sea poster
2.0

Alex a captain with sad past saves thirty teens Afghan refugees. With tension constantly increasing, Alex tries to tackle the company's and crew pressures.

Man at Sea

2011

Man at Sea poster
2.0

Alex a captain with sad past saves thirty teens Afghan refugees. With tension constantly increasing, Alex tries to tackle the company's and crew pressures.

Man at Sea

2011

Greeks (Greek Love and Sapphic Sophistication) poster
NR

A look at “Greek love” and the reality of homosexuality in Greece in 1991. Leaders of the once-called GLBT movement (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender) or simply people who dared to stand in front of the camera and speak about their lives, paint us a clear portrait – a bigger picture that might not have changed much in the last three decades.

Greeks (Greek Love and Sapphic Sophistication)

1991

Greeks (Greek Love and Sapphic Sophistication) poster
NR

A look at “Greek love” and the reality of homosexuality in Greece in 1991. Leaders of the once-called GLBT movement (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender) or simply people who dared to stand in front of the camera and speak about their lives, paint us a clear portrait – a bigger picture that might not have changed much in the last three decades.

Greeks (Greek Love and Sapphic Sophistication)

1991