The great director and screenwriter Kostis Zois died at the age of 93.
The sad news of the death was announced by the Society of Greek Directors.
“The Society of Greek Directors, with immense sadness, announces the death of the great director and screenwriter Kostis Zois, its honorary member, with an important, renowned work.
Kostis Zois was one of the pioneers of the union, always supporting young directors”, the announcement states.
“Born in 1931 and studied at the Higher Industrial School, he was quickly won over by cinema. In 1965, he completed his first short film, “The Horse”, based on the short story of the same name by Zacharias Papantoniou, which received important distinctions (First Honorary Distinction at the Thessaloniki Festival in 1965, First State Prize 1966, Distinction at the Oberhausen Festival 1966, Distinction at the Krakow Festival 1966).
Two years later, his first feature film, “Silhouettes” won the 1st Gold Award at the Thessaloniki Festival, while collecting 8 other awards and distinctions in Greece and abroad. In 1968, he shoots the short film “The Fugitive” and again wins the First Prize at the Thessaloniki Festival of that year.
For his second feature film, “We Could Do Something We” (1971), he collaborated on the script with Costas Murselas, his main collaborator in the first year of the “He and That” series, which went down in history for its subversiveness message during the dictatorship.
In the following years, he again directed for television the medium-length film “A case in point”, which is also the first television adaptation of a work by Antonis Samarakis. He also televised The Novel of Four.
In the 1970s, he created a series of documentaries for ERT such as “Contamination and the others…”, “Living and dead states”, “Pendeli hour zero” and many others.
His medium-length documentary, “The Unwanted” (1982) was an important documentary about the mental patients of Leros and other institutions. He also directed the mini-series “On the Loom of the Moon” and “Pontius Pilate”, as well as the series of personal narratives “The Train of My Life”.
Alongside cinema and television, Zois also directed theatrical performances such as “The Surprise” by H. Tsikliropoulos at the Experimental Theatre”, notes the Society of Greek Directors, underlining that “his artistic personality will remain unforgettable”.
The last “farewell” to the great director was set for the Holy Monday (29/4) at 10:30 am at Byron Cemetery.
