''Super Demetrios'' ( el, Σούπερ Δημήτριος) is a 2011 Greek guerrilla ultra- low-budget

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a stock character that typically possesses ''superpowers'', abilities beyond those of ordinary people, and fits the role of the hero, typically using his or her powers to help the world become a better place, ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

starring and written by the cinematic comedy group OtiNaNai Productions and directed by Georgios Papaioannou. Upon its release at the 52nd

Thessaloniki International Film Festival The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF), organized by the cultural institution of the same name under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture, is held every November in Thessaloniki.TIFF features international competition secti ...

the film got the highest number of audience votes in the history of the festival and became an instant

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

classic, with all screenings being sold out in all venues thereafter.

Plot

In a surreal, parallel universe,

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

has its very own superhero: Super Demetrios. Posing as Dimitris Christoforidis,

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for the Golden Jerusalem magazine, he fights for truth, justice and the Greco-Christian ideal. In the dark of the night, the city's worst nightmare returns. Captain F.ROM is back, determined to meet his long-awaited goal: claiming his true name. The two protagonists are drawn into a conflict that toys with the viewer's patience until the very climax of the film, in an archetypal battle between good and evil.

Cast

* Dimitrios Vainas as Super Demetrios * Paris Papadopoulos as Captain F.ROM * Olga Sfetsa as Maria Magdalo * Tasos Masias as Tsoko * Spyros Papanaoum as Not Tsoko, The Other Guy * Alexandros Stogiannis as Mayor / Batman / God * Charalampos Papapostolou as Haris / Babis (delivery boy) * Argyris Pougouras as Agisilaos Rendas / Chief Thugson / Film Critic * Anestis Derekas as Petros Malakasis / Penguin * Dimitris Makris as Bishop Demagogian / Gyroine Addict * Thanasis Kabouridis as Grandma * Sergios Kobogiorgas as Papa-Michael * Georgios Papaioannou as Billy / Panagiotis * Kostantinos Floros as Little Super Demetrios * Mitsos Papavasileiou as Guy in W.C. / Little Anne

Development

''Super Demetrios'' was created by a cinematic group called "OtiNaNai Productions" (literally: Whatever Productions). They are a group of friends from various Greek cities that met while in Thessaloniki as university students in the early 2000s. The group was formed initially by Georgios Papaioannou from

Kavala Kavala ( el, Καβάλα, ''Kavála'' ) is a city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala regional unit. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala, across from the island of Thasos and on the Egnat ...

and Mitsos Papavasileiou from

Livadeia Livadeia ( el, Λιβαδειά ''Livadiá'', ; grc, Λεβάδεια, Lebadeia or , ''Lebadia'') is a town in central Greece. It is the capital of the Boeotia regional district. Livadeia lies north-west of Athens, west of Chalkida, south-ea ...

, both students of

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...

, along with Dimitrios Vainas, Panos Kechagiopoulos, Charalambos Kydonakis, a student of

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

from

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

and Charalampos Papapostolou. They produced various short and feature DIY comedies and parodies in a philosophy similar to

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

's. The idea of Super Demetrios came in 2007 while the team was working on a different script. One of the lesser characters of that script showed a lot of potential so they abandoned that script and started anew the story of Super Demetrios. In June 2008 they began shooting in Thessaloniki. In December Georgios Papaioannou had to move to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

for professional reasons while Mitsos Papavasileiou had already had moved to Livadeia so they stopped shooting. In October 2009 they decided to resume shooting and they started a series of scheduled trips to Thessaloniki, mostly on weekends and holidays. Since all cast and crew collaborated for free and everything was done in a DIY philosophy, the film's budget of €2000 was merely the cost of those trips. The shooting concluded in October 2010, more than two years after it began. After that Georgios Papaioannou began editing it for almost a year. In Spring 2011, since the word of the first Greek superhero movie had already been spread among fans, the movie was invited to the Den Yparxei Film Festival in Athens. During that time only one full scene was complete with visual effects and compositing (the space shuttle scene) and therefore only that scene could be screened in the festival. Nevertheless, the movie was awarded a special prize for the ''Best Picture Yet To See''. In November 2011 a rough cut of ''Super Demetrios'' was first publicly screened at the 52nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival. After the festival Georgios Papaioannou resumed editing the movie for a while. They also replaced some of the songs used in the festival copy with original scores so as in the final cut all music was either original or

royalty-free Royalty-free (RF) material subject to copyright or other intellectual property rights may be used without the need to pay royalties or license fees for each use, per each copy or volume sold or some time period of use or sales. Computer standard ...

Distribution

Following the awards the film was distributed by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival to several Greek cities. After that, OtiNaNai Productions got its own distribution in two cinemas in Athens and Thessaloniki at the same time. The film was also invited to many film clubs around Greece.

License

One year after its initial screening the film along with its soundtrack was freely released on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

under an Attribution, Non-commercial, No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Trivia

* The protagonist's title "Super Demetrios" is a direct reference to Thessaloniki's

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

Saint Demetrius Saint Demetrius (or Demetrios) of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica ( el, Ἅγιος Δημήτριος τῆς Θεσσαλονίκης, (); bg, Димитър Солунски (); mk, Свети Димитрија Солунски (); ro, Sfântu ...

. * The movie was distributed freely on the Internet on October 26, the name day of Super Demetrios/Dimitris Christophorides, i.e. the

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

. * The

villain A villain (also known as a "black hat" or "bad guy"; the feminine form is villainess) is a stock character, whether based on a historical narrative or one of literary fiction. ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'' defines such a character a ...

's title is "Captain F.ROM" (pronounced "fee-rom") and his constant goal throughout the film is to be recognised by his true name. This is a

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

on the

Macedonia naming dispute The use of the country name "Macedonia (terminology), Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the North Macedonia, Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Balkans#W ...

, due to the acronym " FYROM", which was often used to refer to the country.

Cinematic references

* The movie was inspired mainly by Richard Donner's ''

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

'' (1978) with some stylistic elements such as the

costume Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

s inspired by the ''

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

'' (1960's) TV series with Adam West. * The protagonist's real name is "Dimitris Christophorides" while his

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

step father is called "Papa-Michael" (Father Michael) so his full name would be "Dimitris Papa-Michael Christophorides" (we see that briefly in a

close up A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long s ...

of an official document) which is a homage to

Dimitris Papamichael Dimitris Papamichael ( el, Δημήτρης Παπαμιχαήλ ; 1934–2004) was a popular Greek actor and director. In 1965, he married Aliki Vougiouklaki, the so-called "national star" of Greece. The star couple remained married for a decade ...

, one of the most famous Greek actors of the "golden era" of Greek cinema. * One of the first scenes, that shows a

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

unfolding itself over the orb of the Earth (resembling a giant

frappé coffee A frappé coffee, Greek frappé, Nescafé frappé, or just frappé ( el, φραπέ, , ) is a Greek iced coffee drink made from instant coffee (generally, spray-dried Nescafé), water, sugar, and milk. The word is often written frappe (without ...

hand mixer) while Strauss's '' Also sprach Zarathustra'' plays in the background, is a homage to

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

's '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (1968). * Tsoko's dying scene is almost an exact copy of

Colonel Kurtz Colonel Walter Kurtz, portrayed by Marlon Brando, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film ''Apocalypse Now''. Colonel Kurtz is based on the character of a nineteenth-century ivory trader, also cal ...

's dying scene of

Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...

's film '' Apocalypse Now'' (1979). * The long

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

scene at the end of the film has the form of a

mexican standoff A Mexican standoff is a confrontation in which no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory. Any party initiating aggression might trigger its own demise. At the same time, the parties are unable to extricate themselves from the sit ...

. It takes place in a dusty area, lasts for several minutes, with lots of extreme close ups, and with the film's

main theme In music, a subject is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. In forms other than the fugue, this may be known as the theme. Characteristics A subject may be perceivable as a complete m ...

played in an

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

way, with a big crescendo at the end. The whole style of the scene is a homage to

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

s, especially '' The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966). * The

breaking the fourth wall Breaking or breakin' may refer to: Arts * Breakdancing (also breaking), an athletic style of street dance * ''Breakin, a 1984 American breakdancing-themed musical film * "Breakin, a twelfth-season episode of the American animated television se ...

scene near the end of the film, where the director and crew give acting directions to the actor portraying Super Demetrios is a homage to the similar ending scene of the film ''

Monty Python and the Holy Grail ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' is a 1975 British comedy film satirizing the Arthurian legend, written and performed by the Monty Python comedy group (Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin) an ...

'' (1976). The directions given are actually the most basic

Stanislavski's system Stanislavski's system is a systematic approach to training actors that the Russian theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski developed in the first half of the twentieth century. His system cultivates what he calls the "art of experiencing" ...

's list of techniques which is another meta-reference self-criticizing the obvious poor acting of the

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

actors of the film, protagonist included.

Reception

Due to the long time taken for development, even before its release, ''Super Demetrios'' had already had a strong

fan base A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant p ...

, mostly among the Thessaloniki

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

students. In mid 2011, a major Athenian newspaper did a two-page tribute to ''Super Demetrios'', the so-called "first Greek superhero film", making it known to the general public of Athens. Upon its release at the 52nd

all screenings were crowded with a lot of people watching it standing up on the stairs. The film got the highest number of audience votes in the history of the festival. After that it was considered an instant

classic, compared by many critics to an earlier Greek sci-fi cult film, '' The Attack of the Giant Moussaka'' (1999).

Critical reception

''Super Demetrios'' received broadly positive reviews in the mainstream press. Giannis Zoumboulakis from ''To Vima'' newspaper described it as "the most pleasant Greek production in the last Thessaloniki Film Festival". Ilias Fragoulis from ''Free Cinema'' called it "the most epic sci-fi

b-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

of Greek cinema, after '' The Attack of the Giant Moussaka''". Kostas Tsokos of ''FilmBoy'' gave it a 7/10 saying among others that "First of all, everythings shows love and affection for the genre, and for cinema in general" and that "acting is a bit flat and dry but in most cases fits the movie's style. But after all it's a superhero parody and all this makes it more cult and less pretentious." Georgia Myridaki from ''Fringe'' gave it 5/5 writing that "it has tons of caustic humor, mocks and plays very cleverly with stereotypes that are inextricably linked with this city, like

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

, strong Christian faith, surrealism" while "leaving aside clichés." Stratos Kersanidis from ''AlterThess'' calls it "cult cinema in all its glory" and a "thoroughly poorly done film" that satirizes shamelessly and in a "blasphemous" and funny way the

conservatism Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...

and other aspects of Thessaloniki. Giorgos Kalapotharakos of ''Cine Tweets'' gave it 2/5. He wrote that directing was good, especially if you consider the budget, but he found acting unacceptable.

Accolades

Legacy

As a result of the film's success, Georgios Papaioannou, a successful

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

, decided to pursue a career in

visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...

. After his visit to Los Angeles invited by the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival he studied in

Gnomon School of Visual Effects Gnomon is a for-profit college in Hollywood, California. The school focuses on artistic and technical training for careers in the visual effects and games industries. It was founded in 1997 by Alex Alvarez. Gnomon was originally created to tr ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

, and now he is working as a VFX expert in the industry. His most notable work is for the film ''

The Expendables 3 ''The Expendables 3'' is a 2014 American action film directed by Patrick Hughes and written by Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedikt and Sylvester Stallone. It is the third installment in ''The Expendables'' franchise and the sequel to '' Th ...

'' (2014). In May 2015, ''Super Demetrios'' became an academic subject. Invited by the Public

Vocational Institute A vocation () is an occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbol ...

Agios Dimitrios Agios Dimitrios (Greek: Άγιος Δημήτριος meaning Saint Dimitrios, before 1928: Μπραχάμι - ''Brahami'') is a suburb in the southern part of the Athens, Greece. Geography Agios Dimitrios is situated 5 km south of Athens c ...

, Georgios Papaioannou gave a big

master class A master class is a Class (education), class given to students of a particular Academic discipline, discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also science, painting, drama, games, or on any other occasion where skills are b ...

on the VFX of Super Demetrios to students of 8 departments of

computer graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

from several Public Vocational Institutes of Athens.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Super Demetrios 2011 films 2010s Greek-language films 2011 independent films Creative Commons-licensed science fiction films Films set in Greece Films shot in Greece 2010s superhero comedy films Parodies of Superman Superheroes who are adopted Greek satirical films Films about religion Films critical of religion Religious comedy films 2010s parody films Self-reflexive films Fiction about God 2010s satirical films 2011 directorial debut films 2011 comedy films