Συνέντευξη με τον Γιώργο Μουδανίδη

2021-05-15

Moudanidis, George

HIGHLIGHT

What did you do on your return from Greece the second time?

“I went and bought a shop, around $30,000, another take-away, at Bondi Junction. A seven-days-a-week shop from 7am in the morning to 12 midnight. […] Opposite this shop was a large house taken by some movie makers who were setting up their sets and they would all come and eat at my place, they would cross the road to the shop and eat. Meanwhile, the sound engineer, came one day and said “George, I need a Greek Musician.”

“Why Michael?” I asked.

“I am making a film, In Search of Anna, […] and I want a song that shows a young man around 20 years old with his father, who is Greek. He just came out of jail and goes to his father’s place and they argue.”

I thought, what can I write about this? So I sat down and left Maria in front to go back to the kitchen where there was an old piano from ‘150 years’ ago. But before that I was writing lyrics on the paper we used to wrap the fish and chips.

‘Oh life, you threw me into the hardships of a foreign land,
From the morning I haven’t taken a breath.
You have made me crazy, you have made me mad,
You have left me alone to cry, to cry, to be in pain.’

[…]

I recorded it with a guitar onto a cassette and I took it to Michael and said “I have a song for you.”

He puts it on some giant speakers and we hear the first chord, an A minor, and the song.

Timecode 15:00 – 18:19

Greeks in Australia

Eleni Eleftherias

George discusses his reasons for leaving Greece and the hard work he and his wife undertook to pay off a home and return to Greece. He recalls that life in Greece was not as he expected. When they returned to Australia they began the process of re-establishing themselves and integrating into the community. He tells how, by chance, he ended up writing one of the songs for the Australian film In Search of Anna that was released in 1978.