Φως στη σκηνή/The stage exposed

C ostas Farmakas was born in Engomi on 27 September 1936. His father came from the village of Farmakas and his mother was from Engomi. While he was a student at the Pancyprian Gymnasium, he began working as a film projectionist at the Panorama in Agios Dometios and later at the Magic Palace and the Magic Garden cinemas, while at the same time he opened his first small photo studio, Photo K in Agios Dometios. These first encounters with cinema and photography were the first spark for his great love for these arts that undoubtedly marked his future professional life. After Cyprus was declared an independent Republic, Farmakas worked as a telecommunications engineer for Cyprus Airways. Subsequently, he was employed by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) to work with the film crew, where he worked until 1963, the year he and his bosom friend, Giorgos Katsouris, sailed for London to study Photography and Film. At the age of twenty-seven, Farmakas was admitted to the London College of Printing. in order to have the means to pay for his tuition, he took employment washing dishes in a restaurant. After finishing his studies, he worked briefly as a film projectionist at the Academy Cinema and then he was employed as a production assistant at the BBC, where he had the opportunity to work in the production of English films. in London, he was destined to meet his English future wife, Francesca Deniz Lambert. They returned together to Cyprus and they had four children, Antonis, Stephanos, Simon and Joanna. Costas Farmakas and Giorgos Katsouris opened FotoCine Studios in the centre of Nicosia. The first shop was situated in Anna Komnini Street and then in Zena Kanther Street, where the business remained for more than forty years. Meanwhile, their collaboration with the theatre world of Cyprus had already begun. The first professional photographs of plays started with the Organisation of Theatrical Development of Cyprus (OTHAC), which was under the direction of their friend Georgios Filis, and continued with the newly founded theatre company of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, under the direction of Andreas Christofides. Even though the Theatraki tou RiK (Little Theatre of CyBC), as it was then known, lasted for only two years, it introduced artistic excellence to the island. The financial support of the state and the personal initiatives of all the parties involved led to the establishment of the state theatre, the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, in 1971. The first play staged by THOC and photographed by Farmakas and Katsouris was Agamemnon by Aeschylus. Their collaboration with the state theatre lasted for more than a decade, while they also begun cooperation with smaller theatre companies. in the FotoCine Studios archives, there are numerous photos of plays and performances that were staged by such companies as those of Papademetris, Kakouratou and Argyrides, yiannis Mentonis –best known as “Firfiris”–, as well as of the Satiricon Theatre. in the same decade Farmakas introduces to Cypriot television the first commercials shot with motion-picture film. Earlier, in 1969, together with Giorgos Katsouris, they filmed the first comedy feature film in Cyprus titled O Pparas o Mascaras (Money the Masquerader) , starring Thanos Petteremides, Pitsa Antoniadou, Takis Stavrinides, Andreas Moustras and Nikos Siafkalis. At the time of the coup d’etat and the Turkish invasion, Farmakas with the motion-picture camera on his shoulder, toured the island recording the tragic consequences of the invasion. His film footage from the refugee camp at Achna Forest and the bombings constituted the main body of the documentary Cyprus ’74 . With script by yiannis Katsouris, music by Mikis Theodorakis, narrated by Manos Katrakis, and with the help of the then ambassador of Greece, Michael Dountas, the documentary was screened in Paris, Moscow and Athens. in the mid-1980s, he founded together with others the cultural association Rigas Feraios in Agios Dometios and even published his own local newspaper. in the 1986 Municipal Elections of Engomi he was elected Municipal Councillor with EDEK (United Democratic Union of Centre) and re-elected in 1991. Up until the end of his life on 20 March 2013, at the age of seventy-seven years, Farmakas devoted himself to his profession and was always by the side of his children and grandchildren. COSTAS FARMAKAS BiOGRAPHiCAL NOTE 10 |