references The movie was inspired mainly by Richard Donner's Superman (1978) with some stylistic elements such as the costumes inspired by the Batman (1960's) TV series with Adam West. The protagonist's real name is "Dimitris Christophorides" while his priest step father is called "Papa-Michael" (Father Michael) so his full name would be "Dimitris Papa-Michael Christophorides" (we see that briefly in a close up of an official document) which is a homage to Dimitris Papamichael, one of the most famous Greek actors of the "golden era" of Greek cinema. One of the first scenes, that shows a Space Shuttle unfolding itself over the orb of the Earth (resembling a giant frappé coffee hand mixer) while Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra plays in the background, is a homage to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Tsoko's dying scene is almost an exact copy of Colonel Kurtz's dying scene of Francis Ford Coppola's film Apocalypse Now (1979). The long duel scene at the end of the film has the form of a mexican standoff. It takes place in a dusty area, lasts for several minutes, with lots of extreme close ups, and with the film's main theme played in an Ennio Morricone way, with a big crescendo at the end. The whole style of the scene is a homage to Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, especially The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The breaking the fourth wall scene near the end of the film, where the director and crew give acting directions to the actor portraying Super Demetrios is a homage to the similar ending scene of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1976). The directions given are actually the most basic Stanislavski's system's list of techniques which is another meta-reference self-criticizing the obvious poor acting of the amateur actors of the film, protagonist included. Reception Due to the long time taken for development, even before its release, Super Demetrios had already had a strong fan base, mostly among the Thessaloniki campus students. In mid 2011, a major Athenian newspaper did a two-page tribute to Super Demetrios, the so-called "first Greek superhero film", making it known to the general public of Athens. Upon its release at the 52nd Thessaloniki International Film Festival all screenings were crowded with a lot of people watching it standing up on the stairs. The film got the highest number of audience votes in the history