Giorgos Katakouzinos | Άγγελος (Angelos) (Angel) / 1982

the angel brought down to earth by hate

by Douglas Messerli

 

Giorgos Katakouzinos (screenwriter and director) Άγγελος (Angelos) (Angel) / 1982

 

This Greek film of 1982 is a very difficult film to watch. And it took me a couple of days just to endure it. It moves about in search a various forms of love in so many different ways, portraying each of the quite fully and forcing us to attempt to comprehend, something we know to be impossible, why each individual has chosen to love who they have, most the relationships cruel and forbidding in this world of 1982 Greece when homosexuality, in particular was against the law, police regularly rounding up gay men in the parks where such sexual behavior occurred at night.

      In fact, the film begins with just such a raid, with dozens of police cars arriving at the Athens park and rounding up dozens of men having sex in the dark bushes. Some run into the public bathrooms, hoping to escape the police. It does them no good. Young men, older, and just gentlemen gawkers all are shoved into a police bus and brought to justice, which in that day meant even worse punishment through contacting the parents and exposing their homosexuality, which as in many such highly restrictive societies meant ostracization of the family as well and inner turmoil which often resulted in the young boys of 17 or slightly older being cast out of their hopes along with further violence.

     The 20 year old, stunningly handsome Angelos (Michalis Maniatis) is among those young men, although he escapes miraculously, encountering a darkly handsome and hirsute sailor Mihalis (Dionysis Xanthos) who points the best way out of he park and follows him to the train, finally demanding he have a drink with him.

      He pretends to be simply an admirer of the boy’s beauty, and forces him to promise a meet-up the next night at a local amusement park. But we know there is something deeper going on here, and we watch with expectation as they meet up in the park and actually enjoy an evening on the rides before they later meet up in “his” apartment, where even on his first meeting the innocent Angelos should have caught on that Mihalis is not a one-man guy. But the sweet sailor somehow convinces him that Angelos is now his only love, they have sex, and so begins this intensely darkening relationship.

    Earlier, we witness Angelos returning home to see his drunken father, underneath of whom is his no longer-loving mother (Katerina Helmy), a relationship quite clearly beyond repair. His sister is an invalid with a neck-brace, unable to move or speak. Yet it appears to be only her brother, who talks to her, comforts her, and later, we observe gently feeds her, and the bond between the two speaks of so much impossible love that it truly brings one to tears, particularly within a family that is so angry and hateful toward each other.

    By day, Angelos works in a jewelry shop where he polishes and engraves necklaces, bracelets and medallions. He is a good worker, and the owner is impressed with his abilities. A man (Giorgos Bartis) enters the shop, who we have noticed is utterly fascinated with Angelos, ordering a medallion to be engraved, in fact with Angel’s own name.

   We soon perceive that he is Angelos’ ex-lover and, although he clearly recognizes that their relationship is over and is now leaving the country, cannot bear to leave without one more encounter with Angelos. The boy promises to meet again with him, and does so, the man warning him against a relationship with Mihalis, who he claims is a known figure in the community.

    Without actually saying so, he is telling him that Mihalis is a fraud, actually a practiced pimp, slowly reeling the young Angelos into his world.

     Meanwhile, Angelos is drafted in the army, and by day dutifully goes through all the soldierly duties, learning how to run and walk for long distances, how to use a gun, a knife, to kill. He’s not at all shy in his duties, not a gay weakling, but a strong soldier. But by night, still stationed in Athens, he returns to his sailor, who provides him with love. He determines with his small savings to rent his own place and move out of his family’s home, much to their complaint, since they have evidently survived, in part with his help. As he visits he father and his mother to explain his decision at their jobs, we see how truly dreadful their own lives are. His father works by the docks basically sorting through the masses of junk and detritus that accumulates there, lugging old toilets up to be sent away, burning wood crates, old boards, etc. It is a Sisyphean job with no end. His mother stands in an assembly life that sends them live chickens hung up by their legs which, with scissors in hand, they are asked to cut open their necks.

     Later, he visits he grandmother’s (Maria Alkeou), one of the most interesting character’s in this film filled with figures whose lives might be worth exploring. Even before she arrives, she challenges a group of funeral grievers taking a body off to be buried, who she declares was simply a drunkard, whose wife rightfully left him. When she challenges the personal lives of nearly the women and men in the small party for participating in illicit sex, most of them with her, she admits her long role as a prostitute and is actually stoned by the group, as her beloved grandson Angelos arrives and safely takes her inside. Not only does she speak openly about her own life as a prostitute but demeans her daughter, Angelos’ mother, who she claims was one of the best prostitutes around until she became pregnant, and became a faithful wife to her no-good husband.

      Angelos bows his head, knowing that already he too has entered that world.

      By this time of this encounter, Mihalis has taken him to a party of his transgender whores, who have revealed just how sexual they can be in drag. They gather round pretty boy Angelos and, with cosmetics redo his face, convincing him we would be perfect in drag. He is not happy with the change, but by this time has so bought into Mihalis’ love and his clear attraction to the drag figures, that he agrees to go along, hitting the streets in drag and soon making enough money to buy his boyfriend the bike he always desired.

 

   At first, once he gets into the routine, he seems to even somewhat enjoy it, although according to a Letterboxd commentary in Greek (moniker “Serotoxique”] the real figure on which this story is based, Christos Roussos, declared in his autobiography that he never felt comfortable portraying a woman. And that is still apparent in Maniatis’ acting.

      One night, while out with a man where he sits in a car sucking him off, local neighborhood vigilantes attack the car, pull out the Angelos and his john, rough him up, and take them to the nearest police office explaining that in the neighborhoods they no longer feel safe at nights. If there doesn’t seem to be much logic in their complains—the girls walk the avenue in a seemingly commercial district, and the sexual goings on are quite private until they interfere—the local police office, although reprimanding them for taking law into their own hands, claims to comprehend their worries, and frees them. For Angelos, he spits in his face, notifies his army commanders and, the worst thing he could do, reveals it to Angelos’ family and neighbors.

     The drunken father, having no feelings for his son, is simply worried about what having a fag for a son will mean to his neighbors, and finally becomes so terrified by the situation, that he takes up a kitchen rolling pin and beats it against his head. Angelos, who has been packing his clothes to permanently leave the family, rushes to his side to stop him, along with his mother. The invalid daughter groans with pain and suffering. But even once they have stopped him and tended to his wounds, he jumps up again, grabs a scissors and stabs himself in the stomach. He dies soon after in a local hospital.

      By this time Angelos, lost and almost dumbed by these events, tries to tear up his dresses, but is threatened by Michalis that he will leave if he continues with his crying and blabbering. Angelos promises to stop, and again appears on the streets that night.

      But this time, he is picked up by a rather handsome young man who asks him if they can go to his house, Angelos insisting that it will cost more and that if anyone else is there, he will immediately leave.

      I might say this is one of the saddest scenes of the entire film. Dressed handsomely as a woman, this time in a black wig which does him much more justice that the blonde ones his been wearing, he quickly discovers that the man is married with two children, who he clearly loves. This is his first time in picking up a “woman.” Ane as they begin to have gentle sex, it also becomes clear, he is not at all seeking a drag queen, but a gay sexual experience, being perfectly ready to suck Angelos off. We see them soon after they sexual encounter in bed, Angelos without wig or costume, the men obviously having had wonderful gay sex. It becomes apparent that for some men in this culture, to share a gay experience they have no choice but to pick up one of the “girls.”

      The next night, Angelos is picked up by a man what seems to be a garbage truck, a dicey choice, I would argue. On his new bike, Michalis briefly follows before he turns back, joining this male pimp friends at their local bar.

     The next scene of Angelos is when he awakens, clearly after being slugged and tossed from the truck into a vast garbage unloading spot isolated in the mountains. He slowly climbs the mountains of garbage, some of it falling beneath his feet as new trucks come into drop off their loads, and makes it to the top, where presumably he somehow finds his way back to Athens.

      When he finally returns, Michalis challenges him for having been out all night. Furious by this Angelos lashes out, wrestling with him, arguing where were you who promised to protect men.

     The two men wrestle, Michalis being the stronger finally pinning him down and further raping him through anal sex.

       Angelos awakens the find the sleeping Michalis laying beside him. He gets up, goes to the kitchen, grabs a butcher knife, returns and stabs him to death, also slitting his throat.

        It is the whole damn society who is to blame for this murder. Angelos has simply attempted to love, forced to enter in the dirty sex of those hundreds of men who cannot accept their own sexuality except for nightly pickups of the boys who they pretend are “girls,” rejected by his own family, threatened by nearly everyone including his pimp lover for his very existence. This is not a pretty story that exists in such a hypocritical world in which he must survive.

       The Greeks nominated this film for the 55th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film; it is not surprising that the Academy did not accept such a challenging nominee among their selections. But this film needs to be seen and talked about. I found little review coverage on line.

 

Los Angeles, October 7, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (October 2026).