The traces lead to Crete...

The actions of the Region of Crete for the creation of a Film Office, aiming at the implementation of film productions on the island, are well known. A project that knows steps of success. What most of us probably ignore is the fact that Crete has been used as a film set for 63 years!!! The Little Journeys in the World of Cinema presents films – unknown to the general public – that were shot in Crete...

I'll met you by moonlight ( The kidnapping of General Kreipe) / 1957

The film is based on the autobiographical book by the British soldier, traveler and author, W. Stanley Moss. The scenario concerns the operation that was set up in Crete, during the Second World War, for the arrest of the German general, Heinrich Kreipe.

It was filmed in 1957, directed by Michael Powell/ Michael Powell - Emeric Piberburger / Emeric Pressburger and music by Mikis Theodorakis. Starring Dirk Bogarde.

In 1944 the Nazis were in Crete. British officers, Patrick Leigh Fermor or Dirk Bogarde and Captain Bill Stanley Moss (David Oxley) of the Special Operations Executive Service arrive on the island. In April 1944, with the help of the Cretan Resistance, they kidnap The German general Kreipe / Kreipe. They keep him in a secluded cove on the edge of the island until they take him to Cairo, the headquarters of the British Forces in the Middle East.

Filming took place in Great Britain, the South of France and the Alps. Several scenes were filmed in the area of Knossos in Heraklion Crete.

Moon Spinners (Traces lead to Crete) / 1964

Directed by James Neilson and starring Elli Wallach, Joan Greenwood, Hayley Mills, Irene Papa and the great silent film star Pola Negri, the film, produced by Disney, was shot in 1964, in the then quiet seaside area of Elounda.

The English musicologist Frances Ferris (Joan Greenwood) and her young niece Nikky Ferris (Hayley Mills) travel to Crete recording Greek folk songs for the BBC. In Elounda, they settle in an inn called "The Moon-Spinners". Get to know each other the people of the inn, who are busy preparing a wedding. Her young teenage son owner Sofias (Irene Papa) flirts with her niece a musicologist and a fairytale is born against the backdrop of the beautiful nature of the eastern side of the island.

The Naked Brigade / 1965

Directed by Maury Dexter, director of photography by the great Aristides Karydis Fuchs and music by Menelaos Theofanidis, the film was shot entirely in Crete.

An English woman is in Crete during the German occupation and collaborates with the Cretan resistance fighters for the liberation of the island. Apart from Shirley Eaton and Ken Scott, it stars a multitude of Greek actors, such as Mary Chronopoulou, Sonia Zoidou, Eleni Zafeiriou, Kostas Baladimas, Aris Vlachopoulos, Nikos Papakonstantinou, Zanninos and others.