A NEIGHBORHOOD NAMED “THE DREAM” (Alekos Aleksandrakis, 1961)
Category: Cinema > Films
| Original title: | ΣΥΝΟΙΚΙΑ ΤΟ ΟΝΕΙΡΟ |
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| Director: | Alekos Aleksandrakis |
| Release date: | 1961 |
| Country of origin: | Greece |
| Genre: | Drama |
| IMDb: | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196995/ |
Censorship incidents
| 1961-08-03 | Violent police intervention during a special screening of the film A NEIGHBORHOOD NAMED “THE DREAM” (Alekos Aleksandrakis, 1961)
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| 1961-08-19 | Scenes cut from the film A NEIGHBORHOOD NAMED “THE DREAM” (Alekos Aleksandrakis, 1961)
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| August 1961 | The Greek consul is accused of orchestrating the withdrawal of the film A NEIGHBORHOOD NAMED “THE DREAM” (Alekos Aleksandrakis, 1961) from the competitive section of the Venice Festival.
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| 1961-10-16 | Audiences of the film A NEIGHBORHOOD NAMED “THE DREAM” (Alekos Aleksandrakis, 1961) are harassed by the security forces.
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Description
A NEIGHBORHOOD NAMED “THE DREAM”, the directorial debut of the prominent left-wing actor Alekos Alexandrakis, depicted the story of a petty criminal who attempts to organize a hustle with his friends in an unapproved poor neighborhood in Athens, leading to their demise. The Ministry of the Presidency enforced harsh censorship on the film, because it was deemed to be a disguised tool for the propagation of communism in Greece –where the Communist Party had been declared illegal since the Civil War, in 1947. However, this view was not initially accepted by the entirety of the Ministry’s personnel, so the filming process was completed. The film was granted a temporary permit, but during the preview screening the police harassed the viewers, prevented prominent artists from entering, cut the electrical power of the theater by the order of the Associate Minister of the Presidency, and forced the audience to leave. A few days later, the film was re-evaluated by the censorship committee, it was rated only for adults, and several scenes were cut. The next move was the orchestration of the film’s withdrawal from the Venice Festival by the Greek consul in the city. Finally, two weeks before the infamous elections of October 1961, screenings of the film began, but, according to Aleksandrakis, police forces systematically harassed the audiences. The film’s screenings ceased one day before the elections, only to start again gradually a few weeks later.
Sources – Bibliography
- General State Archives–Central Service, Archive of the General Secretariat of Press and Information.
- ELIA, Tryfon Triantafyllakos Archive.
- I Avgi, 4/8/1961.
- Ta Nea, 29/6/1961.
- M.S., «Συνοικία το Όνειρο, και Κράτος ο Φασισμός», Epitheorisi Technis, issue 80-81, August-September 1961.
- Andritsos, Giorgos, «Η λογοκρισία στον ελληνικό κινηματογράφο (1945-1974)», in P. Petsini & D. Christopoulos (eds.), Λογοκρισία στην Ελλάδα, Athens: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 2016, pp. 35-42.
- Georgouli, Aliki, Από τον Λένιν στον Βερσάτσε, Athens: Kaktos, 2020.
- Poupou, A., “The Geography of Neorealism in Greece: City Images, Urban Representations and Aesthetics of Space”, in L. Papadimitriou & Y. Tzioumakis (eds), Greek Cinema, Texts, Forms, Identities, Bristol & Chicago: Intellect Publishing, 2012, pp. 255-269.
- Triantafyllidis, Iason, Στο τέλος μιλάει το πανί, Αθήνα, Άμμος, 1997.
- Chalkou, Maria, «Κινηματογράφος και λογοκρισία στην Ελλάδα από τα πρώιμα χρόνια έως τη μεταπολίτευση», in P. Petsini & D. Christopoulos (eds.), Λεξικό της λογοκρισίας στην Ελλάδα. Καχεκτική δημοκρατία-δικτατορία-μεταπολίτευση, Αθήνα, Καστανιώτης, 2018, σ. 82-99.
CIVIL Publications
- Ελένη Κούκη: «Συνοικία το Όνειρο: Η μικροϊστορία μιας λογοκρισίας», Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies, Issue 7, December 2020, 121-146.
- Ελένη Κούκη: «Αντικομμουνισμός εναντίον κινηματογράφου», στο Αφροδίτη Νικολαΐδου και Δημήτρης Παπανικολάου (επιμ.), Χώρα σε βλέπω. Ο 20ός αιώνας του ελληνικού σινεμά, Αθήνα: Ακαδημία Ελληνικού Κινηματογράφου [υπό έκδοση 2022].