The Greeks never used to have hero issues. But heroes have been in short supply in the country's hour of need, which could explain the rush to cinemas to spend time in the company of an 18th-century pirate turned caviar tycoon.

The recent release "O Theos agapaei to haviari" (God Loves Caviar) is the story of Ioannis Varvakis, an Enlightenment-era rapscallion who sided with the Russians in their 1768 war with the Turks, befriended Catherine the Great and built a fortune out of sturgeon eggs – then gave it all away to help his motherland fight the Ottoman empire.

(READ the story in the Guardian)