Zinos Panayotidis: Yes, there have been such films and want to forget about them. As well of course as great successes. The best of commercial point of view movie in the history of the company was Asterix. The first and second parts we took on distribution basis, as the producer was a friend of ours. We took the film without investing a minimum guarantee and with a percentage. So if we were profiting they were also profiting. During the third Asterix came other producers who asked for an enormous amount as minimum garantee. The time had come to see the so-called first cut. I went to France and when I saw the movie I did not like it at all. I thought it was a disaster. But nevertheless the film had great success in Greece. And we made a great premiere. Gerard Depardieu, Adriana Sklenarikova and many others also came. This means that we also make mistakes... But there are films that do not even cover the distribution cost. Then we try to release them on dvd, and then we also sell them to the television. Let us return again to the question of the difficulty of being a director of such a company and say that he, the director, is a in constant stress. Because of the film, which he must find and book. Because if the film is good everyone is fighting for it. That's why I travel constantly. It remains, of course, the question to find cinema halls for it and to prepare well its promotion.
 
Speaking of travelling which is your favorite European capital?
 
Zinos Panayotidis: In addition to Istanbul, where I was born it is Paris. In terms of the film festivals I would say Berlin and Cannes. A practical capital, where you can see many good movies and a good film festival is Toronto. A talking about the small festivals, Locarno in Switzerland. But I like especially much Paris. I also import many French films. This is one city where I love to work, to watch movies, and even just to walk.
 
 What started your love for the cinema?
 
Zinos Panayotidis: My love for the cinema is since my childhood. Ever since the junior high school in Istanbul. As a student at the university I became a member of the association of foreign students and decided to join the movie club. The club was in a pretty miserable condition, and it was only screening movies once a week. In the beginning I was only an assistant and I was doing all kinds of work. Shortly after this, I undertook the functions of a person in charge. I was taking movies from the distributors and Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday we were showing them. So, as originally almost nobody attended the club later for the screenings started coming crowds of people. Filmmakers, film critics... Bakoyanopoulos, Rafailidis, Theodoros Angelopoulos and many others also came. This was the beginning of my love for cinema.
 
An interesting story from those years?
 
Zinos Panayotidis: One summer when I was a student between the first and second year I went to see a Japanese movie in Elektra cinema. Suddenly on the screen started to happen all kinds of messes. Killed people lived and stood up, there was a great mess. Spectators in the room started shouting  that they bought tickets, and what was happening here...! There was a confusion. People returned their tickets, and the screening was canceled for the next day. What had actually happened, however! Once the distributor came we discovered that an employee who may have wished to revenge had cut the film into 36 pieces ... They asked me to help cinema technician to fix the film. Then I was also offered a job.
 
Let's go back to the crisis. Statistics show that during the 2009-2010 season have been sold 1 million tickets less than in 2008-2009. Does this mean, that the crisis in the cinema is not so great size after all?
 
Zinos Panayotidis: Of course, that things are not so bad. But let me clarify that the fact that for the 2009-2010 season have been sold between 11 and 13 million tickets is in direct relation to films that were screened. Some films raise the number of tickets sold. Thus for example, Avatar sold nearly 1 million tickets. For the level of crisis we can not judge only by the quantity tickets sold. Overall I believe that cinema is cheap entertainment. You can see what are the prices of drinks in pubs for example. Cinema ticket is worth about a drink. I think however, that the cinema will be one of the last things that the crisis will affect.
 
That sounds pretty optimistic ...
 
Zinos Panayotidis: Yes, it does. However cinema is struggling with other problems as well. With downloading movies over the Internet for example. Greece is among the countries with the most piracy. Did you know that when the film Inception came out in theaters, several days after that Africans were already offering it on the street for 5 euros. And man thinks to himself: why to pay 8 euros for the cinema? It’s better to buy the movie for 5 euros and invite friends at home to watch it together.
 
What is your opinion of Greek cinema today?
 
Currently our level is low. See for example the Turkish cinema, it is always at the festivals. But I believe that young people will bring a change. It is a pity, however, that the state does not help us. For many years we’ve been expecting an important law to be adopted. 20 years ago a contract was signed for the television channels to provide 1 percent of their income for the production of Greek films. For 20 years now not a single channel except for ERT and NOVA has given anything. There wasn’t also a Minister to tell them: "Pay!"