Interview with Dimitris Kollatos

Summer 2023 in Greece and an interview that I will keep in my heart, with Mr. Dimitris Kollatos. It is the first interview he gave after Alki's death. I followed him since I was a child, the courage he had, the drive to defend first national issues and then the rights of children with special needs. His struggle and the inability of those who pursued him to stop him never ended. His anxiety for Thrace is always ahead. I always wanted to hear him and I found the opportunity, thanks to the beloved Dr. Stamatis Georgoulis, lawyer, despite the Supreme Court who organized this meeting. The first was at his house in Athens, where I went and he signed his book for me, reciprocating with mine when I first met at his house in Athens. If I admired him once, it multiplied in a room full of books, a modest coffee table and all the wisdom of the world in those so expressive eyes.
Thus, we found ourselves in Aegina, for the second time in the huge estate that he has created first for his child, Alkis, and then for all the children who were not accepted in some structure. In the estate, he has created a huge open-air cinema and offers free movies and cultural evenings to all Aeginites. a welcoming place!! And always his eldest son, Alexander, a wonderful person who coordinates everything.
And so our interview arrived. From our first look, we had a beautiful bond, and he opened his heart to me. I can't see this as an interview.
Kollatos talks about many topics in this interview, including his personal life, his artistic activity and his beliefs. He talks about the loss of his son, his struggle with autism, his wife's suicide and the guilt he feels over it, as well as his creative activities in theater and film.
He is optimistic about creation and effort, although he does not believe in religious beliefs. He expresses his love for theater and cinema, and the importance they have in his life.
I.L. Good evening K. Dimitris. I am Ioanna Lazarou from the Greek newspaper "Greek News Fl".
Kollatos: Good evening Joanna, thank you very much. I am Dimitris Kollatos.
I.L. Would you like to talk to me about who Kollatos is !!To be known across the Atlantic
Kollatos: I am like a fire that burns constantly. Now I'm doing theater, I'm thinking about doing movies, and I'm also writing books. I do too many things at once. I used to be known in all the French newspapers, but now I am in Greece. I have worked with many politicians, such as Samaras and Giorgakis. Giorgakis Papandreou was a fool, in my opinion. The biggest problem of Greece is that it does not give birth to children. I believe we are losing our country because children are not being born.
I.L. So if you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be?
Kollatos: I am a person who has no borders. I have no boundaries, and that's very tiring for me, but it's also nice. It irritates me. In Paris I had three jobs. I had my own theater, my own school, and I did a play with Philippe Pétain, for which the newspapers wrote me. She was also a cover girl at the time. Petain did not fight at all. The Germans entered Paris. The British sold out the French, they didn't give them air support. They had been promised that they would support the French tanks with planes, but the French had no air force. I am also French, I also have a house in Paris. The house is empty now.
I L ..Have you fought for Thrace, what was the result?
Kollatos: I believe that Thrace was sold and given away. Muslims are the majority, and they are not Muslims, they are Turks. Here we are about to lose 70% of our homeland.
I.L. Can you tell us about the son you lost and your fight against autism?
Kollatos: I loved Alki very much. He didn't talk at all, but he loved me. There is a picture of him with his head in my lap. He was a very nice boy and he loved me very much. They did an operation on him that I would never have done on him. While I was away, he was operated on and died. I have two other children, Alexander and Mario, and a grandchild. I want another child.
I.L. Can you tell us what you have done for this challenge?
Kollatos: No one wants to face the problems of autism. No one is doing anything about autism. I begged them and told them what to do, but they were afraid of publicity. I said, when the minister is a man who has no ability, what can we expect? But in reality, they didn't want to do anything. Now that Alkis is gone, they have calmed down. But I want to do something. I miss Alkis. Others were afraid. A child who does not speak
I.L. Can you tell us about Paris and your wife's suicide?
Kollatos: I didn't understand that he wanted to kill himself. Because we were fighting, I had an apartment for her here in Kolonaki and she lived in her apartment. Me too here, but we saw each other often... I loved her and miss her. She was a good girl and beautiful. He jumped head down, it was scary. I am responsible to a point. I am a cruel person, sometimes I push people to despair. Then I had to understand that he was in danger. Because while we were living together, we were fighting and we decided that she should stay at her house and I should stay here. And he came whenever he wanted. We couldn't be separated. I would never divorce, I loved her very much. Jump off the roof. It's my fault I brought her. She came to Greece, to a foreign country, far from her family and stayed in a house. It wasn't her fault she came over here. He didn't have a house in Athens, he had a house in Paris. I have guilt, because I was a fool. I loved her and she loved me. And when I say love, I want the woman to love me very, very much. To die for me, but not to kill himself. She was an actress, a very good one. He also played in Olives, The Death of Alexander and in many films. She was a beautiful girl…
I.L. The house in Athens this beautiful monument in Kolonaki that enchanted me Books everywhere.
Kollatos: Kolonaki is the only area worth staying in, because it's safe, it never sleeps, it's always crowded. And in Paris I have a nice house. I've always had nice houses. My son, Alexander, lives in Paris.
I bought this house all to fit my books, since I have thousands. I am thinking of building a world library here in Aegina. I'm somewhere in the plans. Apart from theater and cinema, I plan to publish my book "Olives" again.
I.L. What I would like to ask you, because it is a personal concern of mine is this: With all that you have seen, all that you have lived and what you see happening in the world, do you remain/are you optimistic or pessimistic?
Kollatos: A lot is happening in the world, but I remain neither optimistic nor pessimistic. I struggle in everything I do, and so far I'm succeeding.
I don't know when I grew up so much. And you know something? I feel young… Lately I've been reading a lot and staying in, but generally I like to go out. To do theater and cinema. Now I'm going to do both together, I'm going to upload a tragedy. All my movies are award winning and banned. "Olives" was banned immediately after the screening, after it was given an award... It is a masterpiece. It was the first prize in Thessaloniki and the first project to be banned. Almost all my movies are banned.
I.L. What do you do, how do you manage your time?
Kollatos: What am I doing? I read and write. And I also do theater. I cannot live without theater and cinema. I suffer alone. Because writing is good, but you are alone. You don't have company. When you do theater, you also have the actors... In the theater, I have my girlfriends. I always have theater with many girls. And that's good, not bad. To love a woman, you must have a soul.
I.L. The writing fascinates us. you?
Kollatos: I also write when I'm alone. I'm reading now. I read Aristotle, I like it a lot. I also read French books. I really like the story. I have written a lot of theater and have had successes here and in Paris. In Paris they choose a good project, with quality, and a commercial one. They combine them and sell them together. That's smart. They get a play from a small theater, but a good one, and a big commercial one. They bring it together at an affordable price. I have my own theater, I bought it. When I have a theater, I live in the theater. I had "Bretania", "Lusitania" and others. I had many summer holidays, because summer has more people and is more successful.
I have a thousand books. I want to reach 20.000 volumes in a short time. And then I will die. That's why death bothers me. I don't want to leave, I like life. I don't believe in Heaven and the afterlife. I believe it all ends here. When they put us underground, it's over. I don't even want to burn...Why should I burn? In a few years I will take a piece of my body and come back again. I want to come back young. What age do I want to turn? 30 years old. Although I won the first prize at the age of 22. And I published the first book when I was 16. The 'Poems', which I am republishing now...this book was paid for by my mother, it was published by me. I have a very good mother...I like the theater. You make the movie and it's over in a month. You do the theater all year round and you are there all the time. We used to sleep and wake up in the theater. I had staged theaters in shipowners, I did the tickets for all the other theaters... The summer theater in Athens is very nice... What bothers me is that I am old and will die, while I want to work.
I.L. Do people go to the theater now?
Kollatos: It goes. People always go to the theater and the cinema. There are simply great moments of prosperity and decline... Do you know what the theater was like in Greece, especially in the summer? I bought the tickets for the entire theater at the theater where I was...
I.L. What do you believe in?
Kollatos: I don't believe in God, so if there is a heaven and a hell, they will take away my faith.
What do I believe in? To nobody. To the person. If God exists, then what does He want from me? He didn't talk to me at all, and I don't talk to him either. Let's come talk sometime. Now we don't talk, so there is no God. Others say this "oh my God, oh my God" out of habit. We also made the Virgin Mary God. Christ is likable, but okay. I'm reading The Empty Testament: stupid book. Is he trying to show what? What new does Christianity have to show? The twelve gods were better, they had more gods, they were our gods…
I.L. You mentioned your mom before. Were you close with your parents?
-Kollatos: A lot with my mother. My father was a Lieutenant Officer and was killed as a young man (during the war with the Italians)...he had received a Golden Medal of Valor. He was a lad...My grandfather and all my family had fought...My father was a very big lad. And he was killed stupidly, with a gun-wounded and died. I didn't really get to know him, I got to know him very little.
I.L. Mr. Kolatos is over here, a handsome man, and the children have been taken from both the grandfather and the father. and he is already 85. You love the women's magazine, this shows us your path in life
Kollatos: I love women and I dare to say it.
– I.L. I like what you are saying because many don't dare. they dare not love to feel the passion and let them lose
Kollatos: Do they ask me because I like women "at this age, Mr. Kollatos"?
I.L. And you answer them yes, I dare to fall in love at this age. Tell us about the two times you went to the polls.
Kollatos: The first time I participated in the elections throughout Greece, I did very well. It was the surprise. And Evert had said that "I didn't get that many votes either." But then they fought me. I always got votes, but I didn't get what I got the first time.
In our group you find Mr. Stamatis Georgoulis, tell us a few words about Mr. Kollatos
Stamatis Georgoulis: I got to know Dimitris as an active political actor, who has left a deep imprint on the Greek cultural and political society, he has made daring and leaps that few in his own generation have dared. I have known him for the last 10-15 years and our relationship has remained not only friendly but also as a legal relationship because he entrusted me with several issues of the legal process he was dealing with, with the late …. And they had a very good development. I would only like to emphasize that the Greek state does not take care of these children at all, and we fought a really big battle not to close the roof because it housed a large number of children at the time. Finally it closed, but it didn't close because of you, because we tried and kept it open until the last moment. Until Alkis passed away, three years after he left, the roof remained the hallmark of Dimitris' struggle. Stay open. We had a big fight and then a negotiation started, I told him that I would resign as his advocate, Dimitris even used meanings of the French Revolution, as a result of which the court considered that if I resigned at the last moment, the rule of law was not working well and suspend it temporarily. Of course, what we won was a great battle and we also owe it to Dimitris.
I.L. Thank you very much for your kind words and for the opportunity you give us to talk about Mr. Kollatos. Mr. Kollatos is a remarkable artist and creator with great dedication to his art. With his skill in writing, his enthusiasm for theater and cinema, as well as his dedication to his work, he has managed to win the respect and appreciation of the public. His numerous successes in the field of theater and cinema testify to his talented nature and his dedication to the art. He is truly a person worth knowing and appreciating his work.
A big thank you to everyone who helped with this interview, so that the expatriates through MAS newspaper could once again get to know Dimitris Kollatos. I thank Professor Stamatis Georgoulis, Ms. Marina Korelis, Alexandros Kollatos for their beautiful hospitality, as well as Miss Areti Grigoriadis for her unstinting help." and especially the beloved Mr. Dimitris Kollatos