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Greece honors this week Theodoros Angelopoulos, one of its greatest filmmakers who was acclaimed worldwide, two years after his death with a series of special screenings of his plays. Syntagma Square in central Athens transformed into a large cinema screen for Theodoros Angelopoulos' documentary "Athens, Return to the Acropolis" on Friday night at the launch of the events which run to January 29. The City of Athens symphony orchestra opened the ceremony with songs of late Greek Academy award winner Manos Hadjidakis from the film, while his family -his wife and three daughters- his friends and a bid audience gathered to pay tribute to the "poet of cinema". "It's a symbolic gesture to play his movie here, between the Ministry of Finance and the Greek Parliament, this significant time where we all know what happens around us. This film gives a note of optimism through the eyes of a creator who showed us a different path and way of thinking", Phoebe Economopoulou, widow of Theo Angelopoulos stated during her speech. Angelopoulos, had won awards in film festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice and across the world for his work over four decades for several of his films such as "Eternity and a Day", "Alexander the Great", "Ulysses' Gaze" and "Landscape in the Mist". His style was characterized by slow, long takes, poetic scenes and great sensitivity. He died on January 24, 2012, after being hit by a motorcycle while shooting his latest film, The Other Sea in Athens which was focused on the debt crisis in Greece. "We celebrate, remember and feel sad at the same time for the tragic death of Theo Angelopoulos, one of the most influential filmmakers and one of the most important intellectuals in Greece", Maria Komninou, Professor and General Secretariat of the Greek Film Archive told Xinhua. Greece honors the memory of the movie director with a series of special screenings of his complete body of work through the eyes of the young organized by the Greek Film Archive. It's a retrospective to his masterpieces, introduced by musicians, young directors and poets, as well as university students. "We believe that his movies inspire everyone, from China to Latin America. We are very happy to present his work, as we believe it has to offer a lot of things to the young people", Komninou added. Yorgos Zois, a young scriptwriter and film director, who has been awarded for his second short film, "Titloi Telous" (Out of Frame), with the Best European short film premiered at Venice 2012, explained to Xinhua this weekend before his introduction to one of Angelopoulos' films during the festival how his cinema affects the young nowadays. "With the first movies of Angelopoulos I discovered a whole new cinema, completely different from the one I knew till then. This experience was amazing. As a new director, there are a lot of things to notice through his films. They are very pioneering for their time. Personally, I find many points that match between his movies and the scripts I write. A few weeks ago I couldn't go on with my screenplay and I felt the need to watch his film, "The Hunters", he said.