On the windswept and sacred island of Delos, where myth and history blur into stone and sky, filming has just wrapped on what may become the most ambitious Greek television project to date. The Great Chimera, adapted from M. Karagatsis’ 1936 novel of the same name, is not merely a period drama. It is an elegy — to a woman, a country, and a dream that could never quite be lived.

The six-hour miniseries, produced by Athens-based Foss Productions in partnership with German powerhouse Beta Film, is more than a tribute to a modern classic. It is a reimagining — cinematic, sensuous, and unafraid of the emotional shadows that haunted its heroine nearly a century ago.

“The Great Chimera” stars Greek actor Andreas Konstantinou and Greek-Italian actress Fotinì Peluso during the final days of filming on the windswept island of Delos. Credits: Dimitris Pogiantzis

A Woman Adrift

At the heart of The Great Chimera is Marina, a young foreigner swept into the seductive mythology of Greece, only to be broken by the reality she cannot mold to her ideals. In Karagatsis’ novel, Marina is French; in the series, she becomes Italian, portrayed by Fotinì Peluso — a choice that preserves her outsider status while adding a fresh Mediterranean texture to the role.

“On a personal level, this project set the bar very high for me. Let’s not forget it was also my first professional experience in Greece. Marina is always walking a tightrope. The independence she longs for throughout her life, she eventually discovers in books and in the ancient Greek culture she so deeply admires. I’m always touched by the idea that we have to look to the past in order to truly understand the present” says Peluso.

Marina’s story begins in Paris, but it quickly shifts to the sun-drenched port of Syros, where she marries Yannis, a Greek shipowner played by Andreas Konstantinou. There, in the rigid confines of his conservative household — under the watchful eye of a disapproving mother-in-law — Marina begins to unravel. Her intellectual hunger, her sensuality, her yearning for something more than domestic submission, all push her toward a destructive passion for her brother-in-law, Minas (played by Maestro in Blue star Dimitris Kitsos).

Greek actors Diimitris Kitsos and Karyofyllia Karabeti. Credits: Dimitris Pogiantzis

Timeless Modernity

Though set in the 1930s, the adaptation — penned by Panagiotis Iosifelis (The Beach) and directed by Vardis Marinakis (Silent Road, Zizotek) — is told with a strikingly contemporary sensibility.

“This is a period drama,” Marinakis says, “but one filtered through the lens of 2025. We are not dusting off a museum piece. The Great Chimera is a cinematic, emotionally driven series that explores identity, passion, and the oppressive weight of tradition through a contemporary gaze.”

Shot by award-winning cinematographer Giorgos Valsamis (Milky Way, American Girl), the series is drenched in mood — a palette of blues, ochres, and candlelit interiors where the characters’ emotional lives flicker like flame. From the elegant neoclassical mansions of Ermoupolis to the marble ruins of Delos, the visual storytelling amplifies Marina’s sense of exile: both from the world around her and from herself.

Credits: Dimitris Pogiantzis

A Monumental Undertaking

With a reported budget of €6 million, The Great Chimera is one of the most expensive Greek television productions ever mounted. And its scale is palpable: over 1,000 extras, 3,000 period costumes, and more than 100 crew members contributed to the production. Filming began in Syros over Christmas, transforming the island into a 1930s tableau. From there, the crew moved to Athens, where Panepistimiou Street and Dionysiou Areopagitou were returned to their interwar splendor. Later, Trieste stood in for the cosmopolitan ports of the Mediterranean, before the team returned to the Cyclades — Mykonos, Delos, Rineia — for the haunting final sequences.

Four authentic horse-drawn carriages, ten vintage cars, and three period ships were used during the Italian shoot alone, underscoring the series’ commitment to immersive historical detail.

Yet, at its core, The Great Chimera remains an intimate portrait of collapse.

Literature Translated Through the Lens

Karagatsis — born Dimitrios Rodopoulos — is a towering figure in modern Greek literature. As part of the “Generation of the ’30s,” he helped usher in a radical shift in Greek letters, introducing modernist sensibilities that broke with tradition and embraced psychological depth, sensuality, and cosmopolitan themes. This groundbreaking generation also included literary giants like Giorgos Seferis, Odysseas Elytis, and Yiannis Ritsos — writers who not only redefined Greek art and literature, but ultimately brought two Nobel Prizes in Literature to Greece.

Karagatsis’ loosely connected trilogy, Acclimatization Under Apollo (Colonel Liapkin, The Great Chimera, and Junkermann), explores the fate of foreigners in Greece — each seduced by an ideal, only to be undone by the harsh truth of cultural friction.

In “The Great Chimera, Marina is consumed not by external enemies, but by the collision between her inner world and the stifling codes of the society she tries to enter. She is not a caricature of a doomed woman — she is a mirror of the illusions we all build about love, identity, and place.

Greek actor Andreas Konstantinou, who portrays Yannis, Marina’s husband, underscores the timeless appeal of the source material. “This isn’t simply a period story. It’s a story about who we are, what we carry within us, and what ultimately destroys us.”

From Greece to the World

Executive producer Vassilis Chrysanthakopoulos, who previously led Maestro in Blue — Netflix’s first Greek original — describes The Great Chimera as “the largest team ever assembled for a Greek television production.”

For him, the project represents more than just a literary adaptation; it’s a cultural bridge. “This series is an investment in Greece’s literary and cultural legacy,” he says, “a way to share our stories with the world.”

M. Karagatsis was a leading voice among the prominent Generation of the ’30s — the group of Greek intellectuals who introduced modernism into the country’s literature and arts.

ERT will premiere the series on Greek television and digital platform ERTFLIX, while Beta Film will handle international distribution. Early interest from global markets signals that The Great Chimera may be poised to join the ranks of Europe’s most lauded prestige dramas.

According to reports in TO BHMA, filming concluded on a sunset at Delos island. Peluso stood silently beside the ancient columns, no longer Marina, not quite herself. “Every role is like a bird,” she said. “When the work is done, you must let it fly on its own wings. Now I need to find Fotinì again.”

With The Great Chimera, Greece releases one such bird — fierce, fragile, unforgettable — into the world.

Credits: Dimitris Pogiantzis