With over 30 films to his name and a long career in television and theatre, Grigoris Grigoriou’s early neorealist landmark, Bitter Bread, captures the Athenian working-class struggle through the masterful cinematography of Greek-Hungarian József Hepp. The film follows Fotis, a gifted student supported by his family’s immense sacrifices: his father endures brutal construction work, and his mother (played by the prolific Eleni Zafeiriou) tends a home that includes a son maimed in the war. Despite their poverty, Fotis’s intellect shines, nurtured by his teachers and his complex relationship with his Jewish neighbour, Arhontas, and his daughter, Louisa. The Will Fotis fulfill his mother’s dream of becoming the family's first educated man and secure a better future?

Digital restoration in 6.5K and 35mm film by the Digital Film Restoration Laboratory  of the Greek Film Archive, under the supervision of L’Immagine Ritrovata. As part of the project “SUB.4.7,” it was funded by Next Generation EU, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0.”