Greek Television Fires Kostas Spyropoulos

The film project “Kismet” was presented at the idfa forum in Amsterdam last month. A behind-the-scene documentary which is described like this at the website of the Greek production company, Anemon, that stands behind several professional, internationally distributed works:

“Turkish soap operas have taken the world by storm, conquering the hearts of millions of viewers in the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans, South America and Asia. With unprecedented access to the industry’s most glamorous actors and creative talent, ‘Kismet’ unravels the secrets of this success.”

The film project has support from arte, al jazeera, SVT, YLE and (of course) ERT, Greek Public Broadcaster. The latter has had consequences for its General Manager, Kostas Spyropoulos, a competent promoter and fighter for the creative documentary and for international cooperation. This blogger has worked with Spyropoulos for several years, at the latest through Storydoc. The following text is taken from haberler.com:

“Greek state broadcaster Hellenic Broadcasting (ERT) General Manager Kostas Spyropoulos was recently fired by a board decision which cited his contribution to a documentary on Turkish dramas as the reason for his dismissal, it was revealed on Friday.

The documentary titled “Kismet”, which is still being filmed, is about the effects of Turkish dramas on Greek and other societies where they are being

broadcasted. In a statement issued by the ERT on Friday, it was stated that Spyropoulos was removed from his position as his contribution to the documentary “Kismet” was found to be against “procedures.”

“The board of management took this decision as Spyropoulos did not accept his fault and he had some previous actions which had disturbed the corporation,” the statement also said.

Speaking to the Anatolia new agency, Spyropoulos stated that he argued against the decision of the board which found the documentary to be a form of propaganda for Turkey while in fact the documentary depicted realities about Turkish dramas.

Yuri Averof, one of the producers of the documentary, said it was still being filmed and they plan to complete it by spring. He added that he believed the board of management might have misunderstood the content of the film as the documentary has raised great interest in other countries.”

http://www.anemon.gr/kismet.html

http://en.haberler.com/turkish-dramas-behind-greek-state-tv-gm-s-firing-247669/