Pote tin Kyriaki

Never on Sunday (Greek: Ποτέ Την Κυριακή, "Pote Tin Kyriaki") is a 1960 black-and-white film which tells the story of Ilya, a prostitute who lives in the port of Piraeus in Greece, and Homer, an American tourist — a classical scholar enamored with all things Greek. Ilya is a character close to the "hooker with a heart of gold" cliche. Homer feels Ilya's life style typifies the degradation of Greek classical culture and attempts to steer her onto the path of morality. It constitutes a variation of the Pygmalion story, but in this case, the male charachter is not just trying to create, or shape, a mate that he can then consider suitable for him, he is also a cultural colonialist/tourist. Even though he only has book knowledge about Greece (ancient Greece, that is), and speaks no Greek, he purports to teach a native Greek, about who Greeks are. The idealistic Homer is met at every turn by a practical and wise Ilya, and when he fails to obtain the results he desired, he even violates the same morals and high standards that he so earnestly preached about. He is, in other words, the stereotypical missionary.

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