Think of Borat and Kazakhstan. Movies have a huge impact on how the world sees the nations. If Hollywood chooses one country in a shadowed light, rest assure that country’s image will be harmed. The opposite is also true. Countries can use the power of cinemascope to portray themselves, to show their beauties, way of life and culture to a world audience, everything packed with the emotional equity that comes with movies.

Greece has been fortunate to be chosen as the landscape for Hollywood’s next musical film, “Mamma Mia”. The Greek blue skies and whitewashed picturesque islands, it seems, will star in the movie, which will make this movie a 120 min tourist trailer for Greece’s tourism industry – unless Greece is for some weird reason portrayed negatively, which I don’t think. This film will result more profitable than any conventional advertising campaign, a technique that, as years pass, loses more and more musculature to convince anyone.

God bless Hollywood.