Hellenic Film Society Presents Docudrama About Greece’s First European Cup

The Hellenic Film Society (HFS) will present the award-winning film, 1968, which depicts the improbable victory of the Greek AEK basketball team over the Czech team in one of the most epic basketball games of all time.

The film, part of the Society’s Always on Sunday monthly Greek film series at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NY, will be shown on Sunday, April 21 at 3pm.

Director Tassos Boulmetis, who also directed the acclaimed film, Politiki Kouzina, weaves archival footage of the historic game with recent interviews with players from both teams, along with fictional stories, to reveal the fascinating personal and political histories that came to play on the court that night against a backdrop of upheaval that rocked the entire world in 1968. The game, a thrilling David and Goliath story, holds a Guinness world record for the largest attendance at a basketball game (80,000 in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens), and a victory that is still talked about. The film is in Greek with English subtitles. A trailer for the film can be seen here.

“There will be a lot of interest in this film,” says Maria C. Miles, Hellenic Film Society president. “It’s not just another inspirational sports movie…it’s a tribute to the human spirit and captures a moment in time during one of the most eventful years of the 20th century.”