The first awards
Short stories, novels and chronicles received distinctions in student, municipal and nationwide competitions.
Life and creative journey
From cinema
to literature
Christoforos Malamas was born in Athens in 1933. He studied law and film directing. A scholarship at French Radio and Television gave his artistic education an international outlook from an early stage.
According to the School biography of 1964, his father Theodosis was an army officer from Serres, while his mother Maria was a teacher from Asprovalta, Thessaloniki. Alongside law, he turned to philology and trained in theatre through the Stanislavski system.
In 1963 he founded a theatre and film school in Thessaloniki, which operated until the dictatorship. As a theatre teacher and creator, he connected education with practice: the stage, cinematic storytelling and writing.
His activities included fifteen years of radio collaboration, the creation of a folklore film archive in 1962 and an appearance in Takis Kanellopoulos’s film “Sky”. The archival biography also records films about migration and the Holy Land.
His literary presence spans more than four decades. Short stories, novels, plays and chronicles form a body of work consistently concerned with humanity, injustice, historical memory and the Greek world.
From 1992 he lived on Bairaktari Street, opposite the former YENED building where he had worked. He remained in this residence until his death in 2008.
“It often contains surprises, many of which have come true, while others are moving towards fulfilment.”Nikos Politis, “Christoforos Malamas: The Overlooked”
Thessaloniki · 1963–1967
The Theatre
and Film School
Christoforos Malamas founded and directed a Film School and a Drama School in Thessaloniki. The surviving 1964–1965 curriculum reveals an ambitious educational programme connecting theory, acting, dramaturgy, literature, philosophy and art history.
LocationDioikitiria, 91 Mitropoleos Street, Thessaloniki
DirectorChristoforos Th. Malamas
CoursesDrama School and Film School
Document dateFirst- and second-semester curriculum, 1964–1965
The curriculum
The first cycle included the history of Greek literature — ancient, medieval and modern — the history and development of theatre, and dramaturgy. The second cycle included an introduction to acting, philosophy, and the history of Greek and world art.
A broader cultural purpose
The archival text states that in 1964, together with young creators, intellectuals and his students, he established in Thessaloniki the “Greek Youth Theatre”, the “Experimental Theatre Workshop” and the “Village Theatre and Cinema”.
- Presentation of Greek works by established and contemporary writers.
- First presentations and promotion of new playwrights.
- Awareness of contemporary trends in international theatre and drama.
- Creation of cultural centres in the provinces, development of local talent and meaningful entertainment.
The pages also record the earlier founding of the Free Amateur Theatre of Thessaloniki in 1952, as well as Malamas’s fifteen-year radio career — writing, performing and directing radio drama — from 1949 to 1964.
Selected works
A creative journey
without borders
Stage and storytelling
From “The Great Eye” and “The Ants of Summer” to “The Madman of Babel” and “The Flame”.
History and the world
“The Little Madonna of Corfu”, “Sea Trilogy”, “At Lake Unazuma” and award-winning stories with international settings.
The Mediterranean
“Pirates in the Mediterranean” was honoured by the Panhellenic Union of Writers and later appeared in a new edition.
Ode to CyprusPoetry · 1954
NaniodaShort story · 1956
The Flower GirlNovel · 1956
The LotteryChronicle · 1956
A Lost MelodyNovel · 1957
The House of GodNovel · 1958
The Shining PeakNovel · 1958
The Liberator of the SlavesEssay · 1959
The Princess of ByzantiumNovel · 1959
The Great EyeOne-act play · 1960
The Ants of SummerNovel · 1962
The Madman of BabelTheatre · 1964
The FlameTheatre · 1966
The Little Madonna of CorfuHistorical novel · 1973
Sea TrilogyShort stories · 1974
At Lake UnazumaShort story · 1976
The Third ResurrectionShort story · 1977
The Last OracleShort story · 1977
The Yellow RoseShort story · 1978
Pirates in the MediterraneanNovel · edition 1993
Film appearancesOuranos · To tragoudi ton angelon · Meteorolithos
Photographic and publishing archive
The works through
their editions
Family and personal archive
Moments from a life
behind the work
Unpublished family photographs illuminate the man behind the writer: his childhood, Marina, Theodosis, the journey to Jerusalem, the Theatre and Film School in Thessaloniki and his final residence on Bairaktari Street.
Selected distinctions
A body of work recognised
1954
Young Writers Association Award for “Ode to Cyprus”.
1957
First prize in a nationwide chronicle competition for “The Lottery”.
1958
First Prize of the Municipality of Thessaloniki for the novel “A Lost Melody”.
1964
First Prize of the Municipality of Thessaloniki for “The Ants of Summer”.
1966
Unanimous First Prize of the National Theatre of Northern Greece for “The Madman of Babel”.
1973
First Commendation of the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs for “The Flame”.
1974
Ioannis Kollaros Historical Novel Commendation for “The Little Madonna of Corfu”.
1977
BBC First Prize for a short story, awarded to “The Third Resurrection”.
1982
Panhellenic Union of Writers Award for “Pirates in the Mediterranean”.
The legacy continues
Preserving and advancing
the unpublished manuscripts
His son, Theodosis Malamas, in collaboration with writer Aristi Trendel, PhD from the University of Strasbourg and professor at the University of Maine, director and screenwriter Marios Papageorgiou, and Katerina Kostiou, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Patras, is working to catalogue the vast number of unpublished manuscripts left by Christoforos Malamas as a legacy, so that they may be studied and utilised by the University.
We are also searching for his award-winning manuscripts that were never published. This effort extends to the descendants of members of the judging panels that honoured Christoforos Malamas’s stories with either a first prize in literature or a commendation, as recorded on the back covers of his editions.
Anyone with relevant knowledge, a manuscript, copy, correspondence or other information is kindly asked to contact Theodosis Malamas.