Kazantzakis is one of my favourite writers. I think I know him well, although he looks very ugly and scary in his photos. He really was a good Christian and nice person, despite the try of the Greek Church to present him as "satan". The film shows the real Kazantzakis, something that was not for granded before the movie came out.
Something bad in the movie are the plans. They are all short, like focusing only on the person that speaks every time. This is I guess due to the modern environment, where the movie had to be shot. You cannot show modern cars, elektricity pillars, internet caffees, people taking selfies next to the actors, as the film is supposed to take place in 1920-30s.
The quality of the actors: they are almost all excellent. Papaspiliopoulos (or how they call him) was good in Zitite Pseftis, but I couldn't imagine that he would be like 10 times better in this film! I cannot even believe what I just saw. Excellent in the role of the priest Stathis Psaltis. He was so calm, like there was an angel on earth. A few days after the shooting he truly became an angel (died). A strange thing, director Smaragdis gave a role to Moustakas, 2 days after the shooting Moustakas dies. For his next movie calls Psaltis, 2 days after the shooting Psaltis dies too!
Stiv Douzos surprisingly is excellent playing the father of Kazantzakis. Of course Douzos is a bully in his real life, could play that easily, but still. Atheridis in the role of Zorbas was rather a caricature of Antony Quinn, I would play him as more Cretan, than international figure. The Cretan song he sings in the farewell may be a Medieval poem, but the melody was written by Xylouris many years after the death of Kazantzakis.
The woman that plays Eleni Kazantzaki was for me a disappointment. In some cases she plays real bad. Also, I think Eleni was in fact 50 or 60 years younger than Nikos! In the movie she looks quite older than him, making a bad impression.
The guy who plays Angelos Sikelianos gives a gay tone to the poet, thank God it didn't ruin the film. The film improves a lot the figure of Sikelianos, in reality he was a hater of the Christians, trying to revive the Paganism in Greece, and to recruit Kazantzakis for his cause. The film covers their real conversations deliberately!
In overal it is a very good film, giving to the young people inspiration to become something better in their lives. Is not like the Hollywood rubbish!
