At the time, this spirited comedy defined Greek cinema, if not Greece itself, for the world, a fact which has many built-in ironies. It was written and directed by the American Jules Dassin, who, exiled by McCarthyism, married Melina Mercouri and adopted Greece as his home. Mercouri established her worldwide reputation with her portrayal of Ilya, the happy Piraeus hooker who bucks the system and helps organize the other prostitutes to do the same. Dassin plays a Connecticut yankee, Homer Thrace, who comes to Greece to find an ancient truth, finds, in Ilya, "the fall of Greece," and sets to work remaking her. But Ilya, and the film, argue for a modern Greece that wants to be known for itself: a Greece that is vital because it is political, joyous and sensual because it is communal. This does, after all, hark back to the ancients, but not via Pygmalion. The theme music by Hadjidakis is beautifully interpreted by Mercouri in a haunting solo.