Papadopoulos & Sons- Director's Q & A

From the question and answer session with Marcus Markou, I learned various things about production and distribution of independent films.
Some of the most interesting facts I learned were:

• The locations used for filming the chip shop and kebab shop were two shops in Morden which Marcus took the lease on. Therefore, they could transform the shops exactly the way they liked them, and the crew didn't have to travel far for different set-ups.
• Marcus based the film on himself and his own life story in that he had become very British, ashamed of his Greek background, until he learned to appreciate this and be proud of it.
• Marcus first offered the part of Harry to Stephen Dillane however he was supposedly too busy filming Game of Thrones at the time. Despite this, when Marcus gave the part of James to Frank Dillane (Stephen's son), Stephen changed his schedule in order to take advantage of this one-off opportunity to act with his son.
• When writing the film, Marcus didn't have a specific audience in mind; he intended for the film to be enjoyed by many generations. However, when marketing and distributing the film, Marcus specifically targeted the Greek community.
• Marcus wanted to have a sense of equality and community between all of the cast and crew when filming Papadopoulos and Sons. Therefore, he created a friendly and positive atmosphere on set. For example, he would queue up for lunch with everyone else, rather than taking advantage of his role as Director.