The Cinematheque

“A worthy screen rendering … [Cacoyannis] sees the contours of the drama in Greek tragedies as massive and elemental … A powerful address to the eyes.”

Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

This exquisite screen adaptation of Euripides’s classic tragedy is distinguished by its powerful performances, including a riveting, magnetic tour de force turn from star Irene Papas (Z). Papas plays the title character, an exiled royal who is intent on exacting eye-for-an-eye revenge following her father’s assassination. Walter Lassally’s beautiful black-and-white photography is astonishing, as in his early work with the British New Wave and on Zorba the Greek. Two years before Zorba, Lassally and director Michael Cacoyannis staged this glorious version of Electra, which won a special award for ​“cinematic transposition” at Cannes. The film was also nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Electra would become the first in a trilogy of films by Cacoyannis based on Euripidean tragedies. It was followed by The Trojan Women and Iphegenia.

In Greek with English subtitles

The opening-night screening on March 12 will be introduced by John Daukas, an historian and postdoctoral fellow at the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at SFU. His work explores imperialism, economy, and identity in the ancient Greek Mediterranean.