Filming has wrapped in Athens on Ethnikos Ellinoroson, director Giorgos Teltzidis's feature film adaptation of his hit stage play about a veteran basketball team.
Production company View Master Films completed principal photography on the Greek-Italian co-production, which carries the international working title Disqualifié and is now in post-production ahead of a scheduled completion in autumn 2026.
The original theatrical play won broad public popularity and critical praise during its run in Greece. The movie adaptation brings together the original stage cast and aims to translate the play's lively dialogue and dynamic tension into an atmospheric cinematic style.
Story and thematic focus
The story follows a group of childhood friends in their 40s who meet once a month to play basketball at the old indoor arena of Ethnikos Ellinoroson, a local sports facility in the Ellinoroson neighborhood of northern Athens.
Their long-standing routine shifts when one member of the group unexpectedly disappears, forcing a newcomer to join the team. What begins as a routine monthly match gradually turns into an extended farewell to their shared youth, their friendship, and the expectations they held for their lives.
Teltzidis said that Ethnikos Ellinoroson was a story about friendship, guilt and the moment people were forced to confront who they had actually become rather than who they believed they would be.
He explained that the characters represented men of a generation who grew up together without ever learning how to express their true feelings. Instead, he said, they hid vulnerability, fear and disappointment behind humor, competition and childhood memories.
When those communication habits failed, Teltzidis added, the old basketball court ceased to be a simple refuge and became the location where the men had to face issues they had avoided for years.
International recognition and director background
The film, structured as a co-production between Greece and Italy, gained international industry attention prior to completing filming.
Development took place within the Torino Film Lab under its Screens of Tomorrow program, an international development framework for European filmmakers. The work was also presented during the Works in Progress session at the 23rd Sofia Meetings, the industry sidecar of Bulgaria's Sofia International Film Festival, drawing interest from sales agents, festival representatives and film distributors.
The project marks the feature fiction debut for Teltzidis, who has previously built a career across television and short film. His previous short films have screened and won awards at festivals worldwide, receiving the Canal+ Award at the Cannes Film Festival alongside selections at Tribeca Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and AFI Fest.
Cast and creative team
Teltzidis co-wrote the film's screenplay with Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos, who also stars in the ensemble cast. He is joined by original theatre cast members Stathis Stamoulakatos, Makis Papadimitratos, Stelios Dimopoulos, Thanos Alexiou, Kostas Fytilis and Sofia Kounia.
Cinematography was led by Nikolas Karanikolas, with editing by Dimitris Polyzos, sound by Panagiotis Papagiannopoulos, costume design by Lina Stavropoulou and art direction by Eva Goulakou.
View Master Films, an Athens-based film and television production house, produced the project with institutional backing from the Greek Film Centre and Creative Greece, the national audiovisual funding agency.
