Emmanuel "Manos" Zacharias (; born 9 July 1922) is a Greek film director, cinematographer and actor, who was active in

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

and

Soviet cinema The cinema of the Soviet Union includes films produced by the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history, albeit they were all regulated by the central government in Moscow. ...

Life and career

Zacharias was born on 9 July 1922 in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, in the area of

Thiseio Thiseio or Thissio (, ) is a traditional neighbourhood in the old city of Athens, Greece, northwest of the Acropolis, and surrounded by the archaeological sites of the Agora, Keramikos and Pnyx. The name refers to the Temple of Hephaestu ...

. His father was a

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

and his mother was a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

. He studied at the

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

in the

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

department and during 1941 and 1944 he was a member of EPON. In 1945, with a scholarship from the

French Institute The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

, he left for studies in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

on the ship " Mataroa" together with other young people who later excelle

Kostas Axelos Kostas Axelos (also spelled Costas Axelos; ; 26 June 1924 – 4 February 2010) was a Greek-French philosopher. Biography Axelos was born in Athens in 1924 to a doctor and a woman from an old Athenian bourgeois family, and attended high scho ...

Memos Makris Memos Makris (, ) (born April 1, 1913, in Patras – died May 26, 1993, in Athens) was a prominent Greek people, Greek sculptor. He spent his early childhood in Patras but his family moved to Athens in 1919. He studied at the Athens School of Fin ...

etc. He studied cinema at IDHEK and attended theater courses. In 1956, after a competition, he studied at the Mosfilm school in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. With the end of his studies he worked as a director at

Mosfilm Mosfilm (, ''Mosfil’m'' , initialism and portmanteau of Moscow Films) is a film studio in Moscow which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's fi ...

. In 1971 he took over the artistic direction of Mosfilm's Third Studio. As a director he made seven feature films and three short films. In 1979 he returned to

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and from 1981 took over the field of cinema at the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...

until 1990. He met and married his wife, Liolia and they had two daughters, Lena and Masha. He

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

on 9 July 2022.

Tribute

In 2004, the 45th

Thessaloniki Film Festival The Thessaloniki Film Festival is a Thessaloniki-based cultural institution focusing on cinema. The Institution organizes the Thessaloniki International Film Festival every November and the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival every March, while its ...

screened Zacharias' film ''One of the Execution Squad'' (1968) as part of the tribute ''A Director Passionate about Greece.'' In 2008, the 49th

paid tribute to Manos Zacharias under the title ''The traveler of memory,'' in the context of which Zacharias' films ''The Truth for the Children of Greece'' (1948), ''Morning Route'' (1959), ''The Mops'' (1960) were screened ), ''Night Passenger'' (1962), ''End and Beginning'' (1963), '' I'm a Soldier, Mom'' (1966), ''One of the Firing Squad'' (1968), '' City of First Love'' (1970), ''Corner of Arbat and Bouboulinas'' (1972), ''Alias Lukacs'' (1977) as well as the documentary ''The Story of My Years - Manos Zacharias'' (2005) by Stelios Charalambopoulos.

Selected filmography

* ''The truth about the children of Greece'' * ''Morning route'' * ''The Sponges'' * ''Night Passenger'' * ''The Crossroads or End and Beginning'' * '' I'm a Soldier Mom'' (1966) * ''Punishier'' (1968) * City of First Love (1970) * ''Corner of Arbat and Bouboulinas'' * ''Pseudonym Lukacs''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zacharias, Manos 1922 births Living people Soviet film directors Greek film directors Greek film actors Greek emigrants to Russia Greek men centenarians People from Athens