Zorba the Greek (, Alexis Zorbas) is a 1964 drama film written, produced, edited, and directed by Greek Cypriot filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis. It stars Anthony Quinn as Zorba, an earthy and boisterous Cretan peasant, and Alan Bates as the buttoned-up young intellectual he befriends. The cast also includes Lila Kedrova, Irene Papas, and Sotiris Moustakas. The musical score was composed by Mikis Theodorakis. The film is based on the 1946 novel The Life And Times Of Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis. Though the film has elements of comedy, and Kazatzakis's anti-hero Zorba has been generally understood as a 'life-affirming' personality (faithfully reproduced in Cacoyannis's screenplay) it features a gruesome femicide, and Zorba's cynical, egotistical and manipulative personality and his determined optimism are explicity shown to be a response to, and in defiance of, the cruelties and vicissitudes of life.

Plot

Basil is a staid, somewhat buttoned-up, middle-class Greek-British writer raised in the United Kingdom. While at the Athens port of Piraeus waiting to catch a ferry to Crete he meets a middle-aged peasant and musician named Zorba who carries only a zither in a case, in contrast to Basil's large quantity of luggage, including cases of books. Basil explains to Zorba that he is travelling to a Cretan village where he owns some land with the intention of re-opening a lignite mine and perhaps curing his writer's block. Zorba has already related that he has experience as a miner and inveigles himself a position as Basil's foreman and factotum.

Awards