Grigoris Grigoriou, director of Bitter Bread, the first neo-realist Greek film, is part of the generation, who found Greek cinema and paved its path during the difficult years and through indescribable difficulties. Michel Demopoulos writes in the prologue of the book: “The creative freedom and autonomy is probably nowadays an obvious element of the film culture. In previous generations, this was not a given thing, and Bitter Bread, before it was considered to be a pioneer film of the social Greek cinema, it was treated with close-mindedness and prosecutions by the punitive mechanisms”. This publication captures the creative journey and the work of the humanist director-pioneer with texts and interviews by the director himself, researches by Greek film critics, comments and testimonies of his friends and collaborators, which are followed by his complete filmography reviewed: 30 films from 1949 to 1971.
