Dimitris Stavrakas was born in Athens in 1938. In 1966 he made his first short film, "The Gas". In 1979 he shot "Betty", which was shown in cinemas together with Federico Fellini's "Orchestra Rehearsal". In 1983 he made his first feature film, "The Misunderstanding", with which he won the State Quality Award. In 1999, with his film, "The Canary Bicycle", he won the 2nd Prize for Best Film and the 1st Prize for Best Actor at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, as well as awards at festivals in Cairo, Isfahan, Iran, Houston, Texas and in Zlin, Czech Republic. In the same year he filmed "The Passage", in Turkey and Bangladesh.