Greek Director Theo Angelopoulos Dies after Being Hit by Motorcycle

Theo Angelopoulos, 76, was well known for his directing style and the fact that at his age, he was still working full time. Angelopoulos was killed on Tuesday when he was hit by a motorcycle on his way to a movie set he was working at. The accident happened in Athens, Greece, and the movie Angelopoulos was working was “The Other Sea.” The motorcyclist was injured and was a police officer who was off-duty.

Angelopoulos had won many awards over the years, especially at film festivals in Europe. His career spanned more than four decades and included such films as “Ulysses’ Gaze,” which won the coveted Grand Jury Prize in 1995 at the Cannes Film Festival. He also won the Palme d’Or in 1998 for “Eternity and a Day.” Other popular films included “The Suspended Stride of the Stalk” and “The Bee Keeper.”

Karolos Papoulias, the president of Greece, said that Angelopoulos’ storytelling was an art form and an inspiration to young filmmakers. He was exceptionally creative and that his absence will be painful.

Angelopoulos was born in 1935 and he survived World War II when Greece was occupied by the Nazis. Many of his earliest films had a common theme of the war, as well as the civil war in Greece between 1946 and 1949. Angelopoulos would eventually study film in Paris, returning to his home country to make films that dealt with Greece’s most poignant issues – war, immigration, exile, and political division.

Last year, Angelopoulos gave a rare interview, in which he talked about his latest film, which would focus on the financial crisis in Greece. He asked that rival politicians put aside their differences and try to work together for the good of the country. A few months later, that is exactly what would happen. Angelopoulos is survived by his wife and children.

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