"To Kafe Tis Haras" (English translation; "Haras' Cafeteria")
Hello beautiful people of the internet. You might wondering what the hell this post is about. Well, it's a post explaining to non-greek people about a Greek series called "Haras' Cafeteria".
"Haras' Cafeteria" ran from 2003 to 2006 on Ant1 channel. It had 3 seasons and a total of 88 episodes. The series rerun immediately after the ending and for that reason, it has become one of the most famous Greek series and a cult classic among Greek people.
A fourth season was shown 13 years after the "final" ending, followed by a fifth and final season after.
The show stars Renia Louisizou as Hara Haska, Haris Romas as Periander Popotas, Joys Eveidi as Stavroula Popotas and Yerasimos Skiadaresis as Vaggelis Fatseas.
It was greatly inspired by French film "Chocolat".
The series focus on Hara Haska, a single mother who tries to raise her only daughter, Valia, after her husband refused to acknowledge her as his child.
Because things didn't go well, neither with her erotic life,nor with her job, she decides to move from Athens to Kolokotronitsi, a graphic fictional village in Arcadia.
Unfortunately for her, mayor of said village is Periander Popotas, an extremely sexist, misogynistic, xenophobic, racist (some characters have even called him "fascist") and conservative man who wants to keep the village "safe" from outside influences, which he sees as "evil" and "corrupted".
He shows great joy whenever Kolokotronitsi isolates itself from the outside world. His motto is "Taxis and Ethiki" ("Order and Ethics").
He has a son named Manolis, whom he raises alone after his wife, Penelope, abandoned them to persuade a career as an Opera singer. Because of this event, Periander has developed hostile feelings against women.
Periander also lives with his domestic assistant, Tasia, a middle-aged woman, who she didn't marry, so she could raise Periander and his sister, Stavroula.
Stavroula herself is married to Vaggelis Fatseas, a man who speaks his own language, Fatseika. Despite being married for quite many years, they still haven't got a kid. For that reason, Vaggelis tends to abuse, mistreat and cheat on his wife in hopes of getting a child with another woman.
In addition, we have the Poulopoulos and the Polymeneas, two families who are in a constant animosity because of a fig tree. The children of these two families, Gogo (of the Poulopoulos) and Billy (of the Polymeneas) are in love with each other, but they have to hide their feelings in a typical "Romeo and Juliet" way.
Other residents of Kolokotronitsi include Aglaia, a crazy teacher who is in love with Periander, but Periander doesn't return her feelings, priest Triantafillos, who gets drunk a lot, Marika, Triantafillos' wife who loves to gossip, Theodoros, Periander's leftist assistant and Crazy-Antonis, a friendly man who speaks with rhymes.
When Hara arrives to Kolokotronitsi, Periander tries his best to kick her out. Hara, however, fights back and manages to find her place in the village's small community by opening up a cafeteria, which becomes popular.
And as time passes, Hara and Periander starts to develop feelings for each other (a typical "enemies to lovers" story).
I think I failed feminists, because "Hara's Cafeteria" is one of my favourite greek series!
That doesn't make any sense, considering that the series provide a lot of values that I'm against. Periander, as I mentioned above, is pretty sexist and xenophobic, yet he's one of my favourite characters from the series. Part of it has to do with how well he was written and with Haris Romas' excellent acting skills and I admit that there were a lot of moments where I felt bad about him.
And Kolokotronitsi itself is an awful place to be if you're a woman, especially with a mayor like Periander, who believes that women should obey their husbands, wear modest clothes and stay inside the house, where they can't be seen. And yes, Kolokotronitsi is not a place that I would want to live, but that didn't stop me from loving each of its residents (except from Matoula 😡), their problems and their relationships and how they started to be open to Hara, a foreigner, when at the beginning, they didn't like her.
Tasia and Crazy-Antonis are personal favourites of mine, for always being kind and welcoming to our protagonist. I also liked Theodoros, even though he's not popular among fans, for being a genuinely nice guy. The only nice guy I'll ever respect!
As for Hara herself, she's one of my favourite female protagonists from a greek series! I love how confident and decisive she's and how she's not afraid to tell her opinion, especially against Periander, whose opinions are totally different and conservative as opposed to hers. And even though I'm not a fan of her fashion (fashion in the '00s wasn't great, mot gonna lie 🤣), I like that she wears short skirts that show off her legs 😏.
That's all I had to offer. Hoped you enjoy it and I'll see you soon. Bye!😘
