Papadopoulos & Sons

Papadopoulos & Sons is a British comedy-drama feature film written and directed by independent filmmaker Marcus Markou.

IMDB Synopsis
Following his ruin in the latest banking crisis, a self-made millionaire reluctantly re-unites with his estranged freewheeling brother to re-open the abandoned fish and chip shop they shared in their youth.

Production

The film was inspired by Marcus Markou's own family history and cultural roots, which fuelled his desire to focus on family unit; 

"I came from a very tight knit Greek-Cypriot family. However, as we grew older and grew up, my family, like so many other families, broke apart. I also lost so many of my Hellenic roots. In making the film I reached out to that sense of family that had been lost and I reached out to my Hellenic roots. [The film] is not about being Greek or Cypriot at all. I use that as backdrop. It really is about family unity at a difficult time".

The film was shot in London. The crew found a street with two empty shops in Morden, South London, and took the lease on them. One became the chip shop The Three Brothers, the other one the rival kebab shop. The city scenes were filmed in Central London, the mansion scenes in Croydon. Finally, the Papadopoulos factory was set in a real Greek food factory in East London.

The cast included;

• Stephen Dillane as Harry Papadopoulos
• Georges Corraface as Uncle Spiros
• Georgia Groome as Katie Papadopoulos
• Frank Dillane as James Papadopoulos
• Ed Stoppard as Rob
• Cosima Shaw as Sophie
• Selina Cadell as Mrs Parrington
• Marcus Markou as News Reporter
• Richard Durden as Father Jimmy
• George Savvides as Hassan Ali
• Cesare Taurasi as Mehmet Ali
• Alexander Hanson as Lars

Distribution

The film was self-distributed by Markou's own company Double M Films, and Cineworld initially agreed to distribute the film on April 5th, 2013, for one week only in a limited number of screens across the UK, but due to unprecedented audience demand, extended the run while expanding to more venues. In the Cineworld in Shaftesbury Avenue, the film started in their 100 seat screen and was set to stay there for a week, but after the tickets sold out within hours of availability it was moved to the 500 seat screen where it stayed for most of the four week extension.

The film was also released in France on the 3rd October 2012 (at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema), in Greece on the 7th November 2012 (at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival) and the 20th December, in Ireland on the 5th April 2013 and in Germany on 27th June 2013.

Marketing

The film can be found on both Facebook and Twitter, as well as having a YouTube channel, a Google+ profile and an IMDB page. The trailer was released on the 23rd April 2013 on YouTube. The film also has an official website, and a poster.
The Trailer:

The Poster:

Exhibition and Exchange

The film was screened at Cineworlds, as explained above, and was also released on DVD, and is available online, such as on Netflix.

The film made £40k from just 13 cinemas in the opening weekend.