John the Violent

John the Violent is a black-and-white Greek film from 1973, directed, written and produced by Tonia Marketaki. Its story draws on a real murder committed in Athens during the 1960s that became a media sensation at the time. At the centre stands Ioannis Zachos, a young psychopath who kills a woman in Athens, played by Manolis Logiadis.

After Zachos is caught, the film turns into a courtroom drama: the eloquent defendant, with his contradictory testimony and the press attention surrounding his trial, quickly becomes a kind of social figure, while the film leaves open the question of whether the true culprit is the individual or society itself. The film impressed audiences at the 1973 Thessaloniki Film Festival, where it received three of the top prizes. The cast also includes Minas Chatzisavvas and Vangelis Kazan.