You are reading

Movie Chronicling Greece’s Historic Euro 2004 Soccer Win to Be Screened in Astoria Sunday

A poster of the movie King Otto, showing manager Otto Rehhagel (Photo Provided by The Museum of the Moving Image)

March 21, 2022 By Michael Dorgan

It was one of the greatest upsets of all time in world soccer.

In 2004, no-hopers Greece defied odds of 300-to-1 to win the European Championships for the first time in its history — and now residents in Astoria can relive the famous victory on the silver screen.

A new movie called King Otto will be screened Sunday at The Museum of the Moving Image, located at 36-01 35th Ave., that showcases Greece’s unprecedented triumph through the lens of its manager Otto Rehhagel.

Rehhagel, a highly-decorated German coach, turned the team of underachievers into the Kings of Europe despite having to use an interpreter to communicate with the team since he couldn’t speak the Greek language.

The screening will take place at 3 p.m. and will feature an in-person Q & A session with Rehhagel, assistant coach Ioannis Topalidis, as well as ex-players Giorgos Karagounis and Antonios Nikopolidis.

“We are thrilled to be showing King Otto which is a very exciting, well-crafted film,” said Jimmy DeMetro, president of the Hellenic Film Society, a non-profit organization that promotes Greek cinema. The organization is collaborating with The Museum of the Moving Image to show the movie.

“Coach Otto and the modern-day underdog Greek heroes in this moving film are almost a page out of Greek mythology.”

Ex Greece national goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis will attend the screening (Photo Provided by The Museum of the Moving Image)

Multiple languages are spoken throughout the documentary—such as Greek, English and German—with the film having English subtitles.

It details how Rehhagel steered the team to take down the giants of world football to become the unlikeliest of European Champions. Prior to 2004, Greece had never won a single match in a major tournament but went on to defeat Portugal twice, France and the Czech Republic on their path to glory.

Rehhagel, the movie shows, had won every major domestic tournament as a club manager in Germany before being appointed the manager of Greece in 2001. However, the Greek team had a reputation for lacking motivation and success.

The film details how Rehhagel was able to turn the team’s fortunes around and achieve unthinkable heights.

King Otto is directed by Greek American Christopher André Marks and has a running time of 81 minutes.

Tickets for the movie can be purchased by clicking here.

A trailer of the movie can be seen below.

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Advocates pen letter blasting Mayor Adams’ legal motion to suspend right-to-shelter

Homeless advocates penned a letter to a Manhattan Supreme Court judge opposing Mayor Eric Adams’ recent legal motion calling for the suspension of the city’s decades-old right-to-shelter law amid the ongoing migrant influx.

The letter, sent last Thursday and released Tuesday, comes in response to Adams last week filing a court motion to exempt the city from its legal mandate — established by the 1984 Callahan v. Carey consent decree — to provide shelter to single adults and adult couples when it “lacks the resources and capacity” to do so. The mayor and top administration officials say they’re not seeking to abolish the right-to-shelter, but rather “clarity” from the court that would give them more “flexibility” in finding suitable housing for tens of thousands of migrants.

Rockaway’s piping plovers among endangered species commemorated on U.S. Postal Service stamps

A day before the city reopened nearly 70 blocks of public beaches along the Rockaway peninsula for the Memorial Day weekend, the U.S. Postal Service and National Park Service hosted a special event at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Broad Channel to honor the piping plover, an endangered shorebird featured on new stamps.

In attendance were members of the NYC Plover Project, a nonprofit with more than 250 volunteers, who have been on the beaches since March preparing for the summer swim season, who celebrated the newly released stamp sheet commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act.

Bayside High School hosts annual Social Entrepreneur Trade Fair

Bayside High School hosted its annual Social Entrepreneur Trade Fair Friday. Students from the Career and Technical Education Humanities and Nonprofit Management program each pitched their socially responsible products to students, staff and others in attendance.

Each of the 11th grade students in the program have been taking a college credit course from Farmingdale State College called Social Entrepreneur. The students were divided into 17 groups of five and tasked with coming up with innovative ideas to create businesses while also being socially responsible. The Social Entrepreneur Trade Fair grants them with the opportunity to work on pitching their products to potential customers.

Annual Memorial Day ceremony held at Korean War memorial in Kissena Park

On Friday, May 26, the second annual Memorial Day Ceremony in Kissena Park brought live music, local dignitaries, veterans groups, a presentation of the Colors by members of the Francis Lewis High School JROTC, a flower-laying ceremony and more to the Flushing community.

Those in attendance included Councilwoman Sandra Ung, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, state Senator John Liu, veterans groups, local students, Boy Scout Troop 253 and others.

Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade honors fallen heroes

Rain or shine, the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade, touted as the largest Memorial Day parade in the United States, has been a staple of the quaint Queens neighborhoods since 1927. Thousands lined the parade route under clear blue sky along Northern Boulevard from Jayson Avenue in Great Neck to 245th Street in Douglaston on May 29 to honor the brave men and women who answered their call to service and made the ultimate sacrifice while defending their country.

Many onlookers sporting patriotic attire waved Old Glory and cheered on the parade of military vehicles, veteran and military groups and marching bands led by Grand Marshal Vice Admiral Joanna M Nunan, the first female commander of the United States Merchant Marine Academy. This year’s parade marshals were retired Master Sergeant Lawrence Badia and Vietnam veteran Richard Weinberg.