EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
TELLING THE STORY OF 1974 MEET PAUL LAMBIS
AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR, PLAYWRIGHT, DIRECTOR & SCREENWRITER
“I UNDERSTAND THAT STUMBLING BLOCKS CHANGE YOUR PATH IN LIFE BUT THIS WAS HARD.”
TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND. Both of my parents are Cypriot but I was born in South Africa. I was educated at a British School there and this was where my fascination and love for all things British, began. At school I loved drama and theatre studies. It was an academic school and I particularly enjoyed languages and art. My great joy at school was debating and public speaking in which I eventually majored. After school, I wanted to study media and journalism but in the South African era of Apartheid this was difficult to get into as a career. In the end, for my degree, I studied Graphic Design. I then went on to teach History of Art and Graphic Design. A turning point for me occurred when I was teaching art history to a group of students. The subject was the origins of pornography. We were looking at the painting by the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard, entitled “The Swing”. It is a very famous work and shows men looking up the skirt of a lady on a swing but it can be open to many interpretations. Everyone can interpret paintings in their own way and I found this fascinating. WHEN DID YOU START WRITING/BROADCASTING AND REALISE YOU HAD A TALENT FOR THIS? I wrote my first novel in 1991. It was called “The Turkish Princess”, and was about the conflict between the Greeks and the Turks. This was because, as I grew up, I was constantly reminded about my Greek culture and heritage. I was very much a part of the Greek community in Johannesburg and wanted to represent Greek interests. I felt very honoured to win the South African Sunday Times award for my book, “Best Newcomer”, at such a young age. I was a radio presenter on a Greek radio station and my show became very popular. I was on every day from 4pm 6pm. This led me to study Journalism, Media and Drama as a post graduate at the Johannesburg Arts Foundation. This was exactly what I had wanted to study and I felt that I had found my niche.
Paul Lambis is an award-winning author, playwright, director and screenwriter. His play, “74”, is about to be made into a film and is arguably the most important film to have come out of Cyprus for many years. Lambis is an established playwright, having written over six plays and has also written three books. He holds the position of Marketing Director for an international Cypriot company. He lives in Paphos with his wife, Niki and his son is studying at university in the UK.
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November 2019
Later, I was on a community TV station and a weekly music show. This led me to set up a PR company and I was lucky enough to work with international stars from all over the world. After organising some important fashion shows, I purchased the rights to hold the beauty pageant, Miss Greece of South Africa. I got more and more into PR and advertising and managed to run everything successfully together. WHY DID YOU RELOCATE TO CYPRUS?
“I SEE LIFE AS A GAME OF CHESS. SOMETIMES PIECES IN FRONT OF YOU CHALLENGE YOU.”
After meeting my wife, Niki, in South Africa and the birth of our son in 2000, I became more and more aware of the crime in South Africa. There was a massive escalation and people were being killed around us. I felt very strongly that the levels of rape and murder were getting out of control and I wanted a safer life for my family. In South Africa, we were bolted up in our home and afraid to go out. After a holiday in Cyprus, we knew this was where we wanted to be. In 2002 we came to Cyprus and have been here ever since.
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