The history of Olympiacos BC from 1945 until 2009.
Featuring:
Alekos Spanoudakis, Phaedon Matthaiou, Vangelis Fountoukidis, Philippos Syrigos, Kostas Mourouzis, Steve Yatzoglou, Vassilis Skountis, Yannis Ioannidis, Panagiotis Fasoulas, Giorgos Sigalas and Thodoris Papaloukas.
Cinematography:
Claudio Bolivar
Sound:
Dimitris Kanellopoulos
Associate producer:
Yannis Vikias
Archivist:
Akis Papadopoulos
Scripts/Narration:
Konstantinos Kamaras
Screenplay/Historical Documentation/Directed by
Elias Giannakakis
This film is by default impaired, because it was made two years before the team’s great upturn, in 2011.
Nonetheless, it includes great stories about the “red-and-white” basketball team.
The early harsh years, between 1945 and 1965, when the team, literally relied completely upon the marvelous Spanoudakis brothers. Yannis organized the game, and Alekos was the shooter. The latter talks to us with a lot of emotion.
During that period Olympiacos won the championship only twice, in 1949 and 1960.
But when Alekos Spanoudakis retired, the team collapsed and the club was relegated.
The great coach, Phaedon Matthaiou, brought them back to life and to the first division and opened the way for the great team that Goulandris put together in the 70s, with such players as Yatzoglou, Kastrinakis, Melini, Diakoulas, etc.
The team played several unforgettable derbies against Panathinaikos at the Panathenaic Stadium and finally, in the 1976 season, they became champions after an uninterrupted streak of wins. It was a triumph of Matthaiou.
The team was still hanging on, even though Goulandris had stepped down in late 1974.
They went on to win one more championship under the great Kostas Mourouzis and after 1979 the team started losing ground.
The 1980s were hard, but then came the era of Kokkalis and Ioannides, during which the team won four championships and made it into two European finals, but did not get to the top until 1997 with Dušan Ivković and the treble.
More hard years followed until the arrival of the Angelopoulos brothers, in 2006.
When we made the picture, it was obvious that their return to the top was just a matter of time.
Unfortunately, we did not get the chance to include in the picture Spanoulis, Printezis and all the others, who were involved from, 2011 onwards, in this great team, that got two European Championships (in 2012 and 2013), made it to the final in 2015 and won all the Greek Championships.
I would love to be able to append this missing chapter into the picture!
Even so, all the stories the film has featured, are extraordinary, very revealing and highly emotional.
