Istoria mias kalpikis liras

I wouldn't call it a film. It actually is a masterpiece. Released in 1955, but still reflects how deceptive our modern society really is. Kalpiki Lira (The Counterfeit Coin) is the first modular movie ever made in Greece. It consists of 4 stories with one thing in common. The counterfeit coin itself. From the creation to its journey among numerous owners. Is the coin fake, or is material wealth itself?

The new year's Eve scene with the poor orphan girl and the old childless miser man in the third story is maybe the most touching scene in Greek cinema.

Orestis Makris awakens the viewers' hearts with his excellent dramatic performance. A few scenes earlier, his screen-wife had told him 'look at the lime-painter and his wife: they have no money, but they have Fanitsa, their little angel', a line that always brings tears in my eyes.A must-see movie, an all-star film that combines the top theater actors of the time with the then-emerging cinema stars of the following 20-30 years.A film shot in lovely settings of the old-time Athens.

I Kalpiki Lira is the greatest Greek film ever made. In other words, there is no other more complete Greek cinematic creation in the years that followed it and certainly there's not going to be another better in the years to come. The story takes us on a very weird journey. That of a counterfeit gold coin. It begins from the moment of its creation by a naive man (Vasilis Logothetidis) who, carried away by his passion and love for an unworthy woman (Ilia Livykou) decides to change his life and takes us through the streets and neighborhoods of Athens in the fifties with its everyday troubles and cares but also with its small moments of happiness, introducing us in the way to dozens of different people, from small girls to lovers who are struggling to survive (Dimitris Horn & Ellie Lambeti) and blind beggars (Mimis Fotopoulos in his most remembered role) ending in an unexpected way and filling us with the knowledge that nothing lasts forever. Only a poor counterfeit coin...

If this film was made by a Hollywod director it would feature in the all time top 10. George Tzavelas masterpiece consists of four stories linked together by a counterfeit coin. In each story the characters seek to find happiness or love in things that turn out to be fake, hence the counterfeit pound. In the first story a lifetime silver merchant creates the coin only to realize it brought him nothing but fear, he throws it away and starts a new job as a happy man. In the second story a beggar falls in love with a prostitute and tricks her to sleep with him giving her the fake coin only to realize that she only cares about the money. In the third story a fatherless child finds protection and closure in the hands of a childless man that up till that moment cared only about the money. The final epic conclusion is about a newly married couple that struggle in poverty but remain in love. Until the woman decides to leave her husband for a richer one. He is left alone only with the coin that once represented their love, only to realize that the coin is in fact fake...

With an excellent cast too.Including Logothetidis,Horn,Makris this film shows us the power of money and how it affects people fromthe counterfeiter who dreams of a better life till the relation of a poor painter and the true love between him and a rich girl.A MUST SEE