In depth · Film and the islands
The Greek Islands on Film: from The Big Blue to Mamma Mia!
The light, the white villages and the impossibly blue water have drawn film-makers to the Greek islands for seventy years. Here are the films that made the islands famous, the places where they were shot, and how to stand in the scene yourself, with the official trailer wherever the studio offers one.
Updated October 2026
The Big Blue (1988): Amorgos, the island of the deep
Luc Besson’s Le Grand Bleu opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1988 and became one of the defining French films of its decade. It is the story of two free divers, the shy Jacques Mayol (Jean-Marc Barr) and his lifelong rival Enzo Molinari (Jean Reno), loosely inspired by the real divers Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca, with Rosanna Arquette as Johana and a score by Éric Serra.
The film begins with the two men as boys, diving for coins in the clear water of a Greek island, and it is the island of Amorgos, in the eastern Cyclades, that the world remembers. Visit Greece calls it the island that the film made famous around the world, and three decades on, divers and film lovers still arrive by ferry to find the places on screen.
The great image is Agia Anna, a little pebble cove of deep blue water and white rock on the east coast, directly below the Monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa, which hangs on the cliff face above it. The rusting wreck of the Olympia, which also appears in the film, still lies in Liveros Bay at the island’s south-western tip, near Kalotaritissa. Scenes were also filmed on neighbouring Ios, at Manganari in the south of the island.
A Big Blue day on Amorgos
Amorgos is long and thin, with its ports at Katapola and Aegiali and the old capital, Chora, high on the ridge between them. A day spent on the film’s trail fits neatly together, and summer buses, taxis or a hire car link each stop.
- Morning: Chora, the white hilltop capital, with its windmills, churches and lanes, while the air is still cool.
- Late morning: the Monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa, built into the cliff in the 11th century. The climb up the steps is steep; dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, and check the visiting times locally before you go.
- Midday: Agia Anna, below the monastery, the cove of the film’s diving scenes. Bring water shoes for the rocks and swim in the deep, clear water where the story began.
- Afternoon: the south-west, to Kalotaritissa and Liveros Bay, to see the wreck of the Olympia from the shore.
- Evening: back to Chora for dinner in the lanes, and the film itself when you get home.
Mamma Mia! (2008): Skopelos, Skiathos and Pelion
Phyllida Lloyd’s film of the ABBA stage musical sets Meryl Streep’s Donna, her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) and Sophie’s three possible fathers (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård) on a fictional island called Kalokairi. The island you see is mostly Skopelos, the green, pine-covered island of the Northern Sporades, with scenes on its neighbour Skiathos.
The star of the location trail is the chapel of Agios Ioannis sto Kastri, perched on a rock above the sea on the island’s north-east coast, where the outdoor wedding scenes were filmed. Long flights of steps carved into the rock lead up to it. On the west coast, Kastani beach was the setting for Does Your Mother Know and Lay All Your Love on Me; the jetty and beach bar were built for the film. Sophie rides a donkey on her wedding day at Glysteri, and the sailing scene with her three fathers was filmed in the waters off the island.
On the mainland opposite, the little harbour of Damouchari on the Pelion peninsula is where Donna and her friends dance along the jetty in Dancing Queen, and the harbour of Skiathos town also appears. The sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), was filmed on the Croatian island of Vis, not in Greece.
Getting there: fly to Skiathos, which has summer flights from across Europe, then take the ferry or fast boat across to Skopelos. Ferries also run from Volos and Agios Konstantinos on the mainland. On Skopelos, Agios Ioannis is reached by road and then the steps; go early or late, when the light is soft and the steps are quiet.
Chalte Chalte (2003): Shah Rukh Khan in Greece
Aziz Mirza’s romance stars Shah Rukh Khan as Raj, a cheerful truck-company owner, and Rani Mukerji as Priya, the fashion designer he falls for. It was one of the first major Bollywood films shot partly in Greece, and when Priya’s work takes her to Greece, Raj follows her there.
Rani Mukerji has recalled that the film took her to Greece for the first time, to Mykonos and Athens, and the island’s white lanes and windswept shores are part of the film’s sunny, romantic look. The Athens scenes are on our sister guide’s Athens on Film page.
Shah Rukh Khan’s own city is on the ULTIMATE Mumbai City Guide, with the story of his Mumbai and the Bollywood stars.
Athens on Film Shah Rukh Khan’s Mumbai The Bollywood stars Our Mykonos guide
Bang Bang! (2014): Santorini
Siddharth Anand’s action romance pairs Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, and its best-loved song, Meherbaan, was filmed on Santorini, against the white villages and the caldera. The song’s success made the island a favourite with travellers from India,.
Tiger Zinda Hai (2017): Naxos
Yash Raj Films’ action hit, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, reunites Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif as the spies Tiger and Zoya. Its big dance number, Swag Se Swagat, was filmed on Naxos, at the Portara, the great marble doorway of an unfinished temple of Apollo, and around the harbour of the main town, with some two hundred dancers and extras. The song became one of the most watched Indian videos on YouTube, and it brought Naxos to a vast new audience.
For the story of Yash Raj Films and Mumbai’s film studios, see our sister guide in Mumbai.
Our Naxos guide Bollywood and Yash Raj Films
Zorba the Greek (1964): Crete
Michael Cacoyannis’s film of Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel, the Cretan writer’s best-known book, stars Anthony Quinn as the irrepressible Alexis Zorba and Alan Bates as the reserved English writer who hires him, with Irene Papas and Lila Kedrova. It was filmed in black and white on Crete, and Mikis Theodorakis’s music, above all the dance that the world now calls the sirtaki, became the sound of Greece.
The film won three Oscars: Lila Kedrova as Best Supporting Actress, Walter Lassally for black-and-white cinematography and Vassilis Fotopoulos for black-and-white art direction. Its famous final dance on the beach was filmed at Stavros, on the Akrotiri peninsula near Chania, where the little bay below the mountain is still a place of pilgrimage.
There is no official trailer for this film on the studio’s own channels, so we do not embed one.
The Guns of Navarone (1961): Rhodes
J. Lee Thompson’s wartime adventure, from Alistair MacLean’s novel, sends Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn on a commando raid against two great guns on a fictional Aegean island. Much of it was filmed on Rhodes, and it won the Oscar for special effects.
The island has never forgotten it. The small bay at Ladiko, south of Faliraki, where Anthony Quinn spent time during the filming, is known to this day as Anthony Quinn Bay, a cove of clear water between the rocks.
Boy on a Dolphin (1957): Hydra
Jean Negulesco’s film, with Alan Ladd, Clifton Webb and Sophia Loren as a sponge diver who finds an ancient statue on the seabed, was one of Sophia Loren’s first Hollywood films. It was filmed largely on Hydra, and the island’s stone harbour, its mansions climbing the hillside and its car-free lanes look much as they do on screen.
In the years that followed, Hydra became a magnet for artists, writers and musicians. It is an easy trip from Athens: fast boats run from Piraeus in about two hours.
There is no official trailer for this film on the studio’s own channels, so we do not embed one.
For Your Eyes Only (1981): Bond on Corfu
Roger Moore’s fifth outing as James Bond, directed by John Glen, with Carole Bouquet as Melina Havelock, came to Greece for its locations. On Corfu, the Achilleion, the palace built for Empress Elisabeth of Austria, served for the casino scenes, and the island’s coast and villages fill the chase sequences.
On the mainland, the film’s climax was shot at the monasteries of Meteora, high on their pillars of rock in Thessaly: a long day trip from Athens, and a sight worth the journey.
There is no official trailer for this film on the studio’s own channels, so we do not embed one.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001): Kefalonia
John Madden’s film of Louis de Bernières’s novel, with Nicolas Cage as an Italian officer and Penélope Cruz as Pelagia, the doctor’s daughter, is set on Kefalonia during the Second World War and was filmed on the island itself. A village set was built near Sami on the east coast, and the beach scenes were filmed at Antisamos, a crescent of white pebbles and emerald water below green hills.
Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian islands, is a quieter, greener Greece, with flights in summer and ferries from Kyllini in the Peloponnese.
There is no official trailer for this film on the studio’s own channels, so we do not embed one.
Shirley Valentine (1989): Mykonos
Lewis Gilbert’s film of Willy Russell’s play stars Pauline Collins, nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress, as a Liverpool housewife who leaves her kitchen for a holiday in Greece, and Tom Conti as Costas, the taverna owner. It was filmed on Mykonos, where her taverna stood on the beach at Agios Ioannis, on the west coast facing Delos.
There is no official trailer for this film on the studio’s own channels, so we do not embed one.
The Bourne Identity (2002): the last scene on Mykonos
Doug Liman’s thriller ends far from its rain-soaked chases across Europe: Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne finds Marie (Franka Potente) running a scooter-hire shop on a sunlit Greek island, and that final scene was filmed on Mykonos.
Mediterraneo (1991): Kastellorizo
Gabriele Salvatores’s gentle comedy follows a handful of Italian soldiers posted to a remote Greek island in 1941, who are forgotten by the war and slowly fall under the island’s spell. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and it was filmed on Kastellorizo, Greece’s easternmost island, with its harbour of colourful mansions just off the Turkish coast.
There is no official trailer for this film on the studio’s own channels, so we do not embed one.
The Lost Daughter (2021): Spetses
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s first film as a director, from Elena Ferrante’s novel, stars Olivia Colman as a professor on a working holiday by the sea, with Dakota Johnson and Jessie Buckley. Gyllenhaal moved the story from Italy to Greece and filmed it on Spetses, the pine-scented island at the mouth of the Argolic Gulf. It received three Oscar nominations.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022): Spetses and Porto Heli
Rian Johnson’s second Benoit Blanc mystery, with Daniel Craig, sets a tech billionaire’s murder-mystery weekend on his private Greek island. The location filming took place on Spetses and on the mainland coast opposite, at the Amanzoe resort near Porto Heli.
Spetses is car-free in its old town, with horse-drawn carriages, sea captains’ mansions and the grand Poseidonion hotel on the waterfront, and it is two to three hours from Piraeus by fast boat.
And on the mainland: Before Midnight
Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (2013), the third film with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as Jesse and Céline, takes the couple on a summer holiday in the southern Peloponnese, around Kardamyli in the Mani. It is not an island film, but it is one of the most loving portraits of Greece in modern cinema, and a fine reason to drive south from Athens.
Our advice
Watch the film, then take the ferry. Amorgos and Skopelos reward a few days rather than a day trip, and both are at their best in June and September, when the sea is warm and the steps to the chapels are quiet. Many islands have summer open-air cinemas, and a film under the stars is one of the joys of a Greek summer.
Over to you. Which island film do you love, and which scene would you add? Tell us below or in our forum: we read every message, and the best suggestions will join this page.
Open-air cinemas on the islands Athens on Film Join the conversation in our forum
Questions and answers
Where was The Big Blue filmed in Greece?
On Amorgos, in the Cyclades, at the cove of Agia Anna below the Monastery of Panagia Hozoviotissa and at the wreck of the Olympia in Liveros Bay. Scenes were also filmed at Manganari on Ios.
Where was Mamma Mia! filmed?
Mostly on Skopelos, at the chapel of Agios Ioannis sto Kastri and the beaches of Kastani and Glysteri, with scenes on Skiathos and at Damouchari on the Pelion peninsula. The sequel was filmed on Vis, in Croatia.
How do you get to the Mamma Mia! chapel?
Fly to Skiathos, take the ferry or fast boat to Skopelos, then drive to the north-east coast and climb the rock-cut steps to Agios Ioannis sto Kastri.
Was Chalte Chalte filmed in Greece?
Yes. Rani Mukerji has recalled filming in Mykonos and Athens, and the film was one of the first major Bollywood productions shot partly in Greece.
Which Bollywood songs were filmed on the Greek islands?
Meherbaan from Bang Bang! was filmed on Santorini, and Swag Se Swagat from Tiger Zinda Hai on Naxos, at the Portara and the harbour.
Join the conversation
Which island film do you love? Share your favourite scenes, the locations you have found and the films we should add.
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Sources: Visit Greece (visitgreece.gr), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Festival de Cannes, Alert Diver, Greek Reporter, Culture Trip, skopelos.com, IBTimes India, Gulf News and New Greek TV, checked on 25 October 2026. Trailers and song videos are embedded from the official YouTube channels of each film’s studio, distributor or music label; where none exists online, we leave it out. Visiting times for monasteries and chapels change: check locally.