During the early days of cinema, Greece was an extremely impoverished and rural society, and the film fad virtually bypassed the country. One film, "Golfo," appeared at the beginning of World War I, but the industry went into hibernation for the duration of the war. Domestically made feature films appeared after the war. Few were memorable until the tail end of the silent era, when a small production company, DAG, began to produce genre films in Greece featuring Greek writers, directors and actors. One early silent film, "Social Decay," was a hit in Greece, but by then the world had moved on to talkies. "Social Decay" rarely played outside Greece.
The Nazis occupied Greece in World War II and instituted strict censorship. Greek audiences, however, refused to attend German and Italian films and demand was great for homegrown product. Producer Filopoemin Filos' "The Voice of the Heart" is considered the first modern Greek movie and was a massive hit at the time. It still plays regularly in Greek revival festivals. After the Nazis were ousted, a military junta took over and instituted its own forms of censorship. However, the Germans were fair game, and a series of artistic films highlighting social issues appeared against war backgrounds. Some of those films were "Bitter Bread" and "Black Earth." The first purely Greek art film, "The Ogre of Athens," was released in the 1950s.
Despite continuing censorship, Greek film started gaining international attention around 1960. "Never on Sunday" and "Zorba the Greek" appeared in the early '60s and were worldwide hits. A rendition of Euripides' tragedy "Electra" was released in 1962 and became an art house favorite since. Greek filmmakers still had to leave the country to make films. What many consider the greatest Greek film, 1969's "Z" by Costas-Gravas, is a political thriller involving the assassination of a leftist minister. It was shot outside of the country and was banned instantly by Greek officials. Another political thriller, "Kierion," was only shown outside of Greece. "Dogtooth" (2009) and "Eternity and a Day" (1998) won prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and were hits in independent runs in the United States. Both developed cult followings.
In the early part of the 21st Century, festivals arose in Europe and the United States celebrating low-budget Greek exploitation films. These festivals were similar to celebrations of the Kung Fu movies from Hong Kong or Blaxploitation films in the 1970s and 80s and the Blaxploitation films of the same era. These minor cult films, with titles such as "The Attack of the Giant Mousaka," and "Evil," serve genres ranging from erotic thrillers to zombie slashers to sci-fi comedies.