Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek (1964) is a landmark Greek-American drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Michael Cacoyannis and adapted from Nikos Kazantzakis' novel. Shot in black and white on location in Crete, the film follows a buttoned-up British writer named Basil who travels to the island to manage an inherited mine — and ends up in the orbit of the most alive human being he has ever met.

That man is Alexis Zorba, played by Anthony Quinn with an energy that refuses to be contained by the screen. Zorba eats, drinks, dances sirtaki, and falls in love with complete sincerity, dragging the reluctant Basil further from his careful, bookish existence with every passing day. Irene Papas and Lila Kedrova play women whose fates are shaped by the island's harsh social codes.

The film took three Academy Awards — for cinematography, editing, and art direction — and Quinn and Kedrova both received acting nominations. Sixty years on, Zorba remains a figure so vivid he has become an archetype: a word in many languages for a certain appetite for life. Stream Zorba the Greek (1964) online on iFILM.