Greece – Konstantinos Kardakaris, Mikrokosmos (Athens)

Cinema for me is…

Greece -Konstantinos Kardakaris   from Europa Cinemas on Vimeo.

Konstantinos in 23 Frames

1. Describe yourself in ten words.
I will use my ten words to just say: optimistic.

2. Your best quality? Your worst habit?
Best quality: Passionate for what I love doing
Worst habit: self-critical at the same time.

3. Your dream job?
Film and stage director.

4. What do you like most about your country?
No matter how I feel, a stroll in the center of Athens in a sunny day will lift my spirits.

5. Your favorite dish in your country?
Souvlaki with gyros. Positively.

6. Which word or phrase in your native language do you like the most and what does it mean?
I like the phrase “Nistiko arkoudi then horevi”, which can be literally translated as “a hungry bear won’t dance”. It means that you can’t complete a task while being hungry.

7. What European capital have you visited lately?
Edinburgh.

8. Other than your own, which European country would you love to live in?
Although I haven’t been there yet, I would really want to live in Spain.

9. What does Europe mean to you? 3 values.
Unity, Democracy, Diversity.

10. What film made you fall in love with cinema?
Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988) IT, and its wonderful soundtrack by Ennio Morricone.

11. Your favorite film theatre? What do you like about it?
That would be “Iris”, a historic film theatre in the center of Athens. Nowadays it has stopped working exclusively as a cinema. It is open to the public for screenings of classic films, performances and free cinema and photography seminars organized by the University Club Cultural Society.

12. Who is your movie hero?
One of my favorite characters is Driss, played by Omar Sy in the 2011 movie Intouchables.

13. Which movie director would you like to be?
A mixture of Xavier Dolan, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Richard Curtis, Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu and Giuseppe Tornatore.

14. Briefly describe your favorite scene.
It’s a scene from the movie Inglourious Basterds by Q. Tarantino, where Brad Pitt portrays an American with a very strong accent. He and his, also American, friends try to convince a field officer (played by Christoph Waltz) that they are Italians without any knowledge of the language. Turns out, though, that the officer is fluent in Italian. The result is a funny, quick-paced scene alternating between German and Italian.

15. What are the 3 best European films you have seen in the last year?
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016) DE
American Honey (Andrea Arnold, 2016) UK
Suntan (Argyris Papadimitropoulos, 2016) GR

16. Which film character do you most identify with?
Tough question, but I would go for Rob Gordon, played by John Cusack in High Fidelity (2000, US).

17. Your favorite soundtrack or song?
Ennio Morricone ‘s Love Theme for the movie Cinema Paradiso.

18. If you had to live in a movie, which one would you like it to be?
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011) US

19. Your life becomes a bio-pic. Who plays the role of you?
Christoph Waltz.

20. Which talent would you most like to have?
To learn how to play any music instrument quickly.

21. What is your most treasured possession?
Coming to think about it, memories are the most treasured possession we all have. But, just to give a more “tangible” answer, I would say an old guitar.

22. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Completing questionnaires. (And shooting my first short film too)

23. What is your motto?
Trust your Crazy Ideas

Konstantinos Kardakaris is the Ambassador of Mikrokosmos. Find out the cinema portrait here