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# Stella
- URL: https://violet-wood.ghost.io/stella/
- Published: 2026-09-12T13:33:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-12T13:33:30.000Z
- Author: Violet Wood
- Tags: Cinema

How many Greek films can you name? By 'Greek film', I mean a film in the Greek language which was made by the Greek film industry. So, obviously not Mamma Mia, or The Guns of Navarone, or most recently The Odyssey, which fail on both counts.

Until very recently, the only one I had heard of was Zorba the Greek. This 1964 film, directed by Michael Cacoyannis and starring Antony Quinn and Alan Bates, is the highest-grossing Greek film of all time.

I am a member of the Garden Cinema (so called because it's based in London's Covent Garden). This independent picturehouse shows a wide range of films that you don't see in mainstream cinema, often organised into seasons. Its head curator is a Greek woman. This may explain the series known as 'Greek Salad', incorporating some Greek films into the programme on a regular basis.

So on Thursday evening, I found myself at the Garden Cinema for a showing of Stella. This was released in 1955, also directed by Cacoyannis, with Melina Mercouri as the female lead in her first film. After a distinguished acting career she became Greece's first female Minister of Culture in 1981.

The film was introduced by Betty Iliadou, a former member of the Greek judiciary, and an advocate for female empowerment. I learned that Stella was generally regarded by Greek people as their favourite Greek film – and indeed there were many Greeks in the audience for the showing.

The film itself is a remake of Carmen. Stella is a strong, independent-minded woman, who is brave enough to say 'No' at a critical moment in her life. Here is the synopsis by the Garden Cinema:

> Stella is an Athens night club singer who refuses to conform to the harsh moral standards of Greek society during the 1950s. She has a student lover (Alekos Alexandrakis) and is happy to spend her life singing, falling in love and breaking men’s hearts. She begins an affair with a local football champion, Miltos (George Foundas), but finds that he refuses to grant her the freedom she has worked so hard to gain. When she decides to leave Miltos, she finds that her transgression of feminine propriety leads to danger and violence.

The film was controversial at the time. Greek society in the 1950s was deeply patriarchal. A woman's role in life was to marry and produce children, with her life centred on home, husband and family. Free spirits such as Stella were rare. Women were not allowed to vote, or inherit property, until 1952\. Now the fictional Stella is seen as a feminist icon. Even though the ending of the film is predictable, she made the right choice, and given what we know of her in the film, she could not have made a different choice. I am an even more determined feminist for seeing the film.