“Pleiades”: Cyprus has filmed a documentary series about the island’s first serial killer in history

Directors Andreas Chettanis and Paris Prokopiou have made a six-part documentary investigative film, “Pleiades: Victims of a Serial Killer” (Pleiades: Victims of a Serial Killer). The film is dedicated to the case of Nikos Metaxas, a former captain of the Cyprus National Guard, who between 2016 and 2018 killed five foreign women employees (from the Philippines, Romania and Nepal) and two of their young daughters. The title of the series refers to Greek mythology, where the Pleiades are the seven daughters of the titan Atlas who became stars, symbolising seven lives cut short. The project’s linear structure devotes the first five episodes to the victims, while the final episode (“Orion”) focuses on the killer himself, who is currently serving seven life sentences.

The creators of the series deliberately rejected the format of a fictional drama in favour of hard-hitting and realistic documentary filmmaking in order to clearly highlight the systemic failures and racism within the Cypriot police structure. The film examines in detail how negligence by officials, who dismissed the migrant women’s disappearances as a mere breach of employment contracts and their secret departure to the north of the island, allowed Metaxas to continue committing crimes unhindered for two years. The authors carried out enormous work: they gathered archival materials, interviewed rescuers, forensic experts, psychologists, relatives of the killer himself, and also visited the Philippines, Romania and Nepal to record interviews with the families of the victims.

The project has been in development since 2022 by the authors using their own savings and with the support of colleagues working purely out of enthusiasm. Premier screenings of the series with English subtitles took place at the Pantheon cinema in Nicosia on 16 and 17 May 2026. Broadcasting rights have already been acquired by the Greek public broadcaster ERT and one of the Polish television networks. Notably, Cypriot broadcasters have so far shown no interest in purchasing and airing the film on local television; if this trend continues, the directors plan to launch independent online distribution of the project.