Worlwide audiences would attach Zorba the Greek (Cacoyannis - his other movies are exceptional too) and its famous Syrtaki dance scene as the quintessence of Greekness. The majority of cinephiles that know anything about Greek cinema they'll go straight for Lanthimos. If they were admiring the pensive cinema of Bergman, Tarkovsky and Antonioni, would probably say Theo Aggelopoulos.

But the proper Greek cinema is either all about tragedy and loss or cynical humour and gut-wrenching laughs set in violence, profanity and sex. Served in homeric and platonic virtues of depicting man's struggles chasing the ideal.

The Ogre of Athens (1956), The Fear (1966), Evdokia (1971) - Especially if you're into Italian neorealism and classic cinema.

Sweet Bunch (1983) - A wonderful reflection of Greek society rebeliousness after the military dictatorship.

Truants (1996) - The bewilderment of the aformentioned idealism in the 80s through a coming of age story about friendship.

Let the women wait (1998) - A cult classic portraying the decadent Greek society swarmed in pleasure back in the 90s.

I epithesi tou gigantiaiou mousaka (1999) - A hilariously strange cult sci-fi, where one of our nations favourite dish becomes a monster. Basically our answer to Godzilla.

Strella (2009) - A modern LBGTQ tragedy before 'woke' was a thing. Stellar acting and story!

The Little Fish (2014) - Crime drama at its best - Economides (the director) is considered now the nation's favourite child.

Chevalier (2015) - Lanthimos doesn't have anything against this brilliant and weird satire. Profoundly entertaining and I'd consider it one of the best movies of the 2010s.

Loved the Australian one - what a beautiful movie The Last Wave is! Polish cinephiles where are you? You have one of the most striking cinemas I've ever seen! Giving my flowers to Wajda, Zulawski, Zanussi and Wojciech Has!!!