# panos cosmatos born: february 1 1974 (age 51) rome italy occupations: film director - screenwriter - film producer years active: 1993-present father: george p. cosmatos panos cosmatos (born february 1 1974) is an italian-canadian film director and screenwriter. ey is known for beyond the black rainbow and mandy cosmatos was born in italy to greek-italian film-maker george p. cosmatos (whose credits include rambo: first blood part ii and cobra) and swedish sculptor birgitta ljungberg-cosmatos. the family moved to victoria british columbia in the early 1980s as a child cosmatos frequented a video store named video attic. during these trips ey would browse the error and sci-fi sections looking at the covers of films ey was not allowed to watch instead imagining what these films were like based on the images ir first break in the film industry was being a second-unit video assist operator for ir father's film tombstone ey made ir first feature film beyond the black rainbow (2010) by financing it through d.v.d. residuals from tombstone in 2017 cosmatos directed the action error film mandy which was produced by legion m. the film starred nicolas cage andrea riseborough and linus roache. it premiered at the 2018 sundance film festival on january 19 and began a limited cinematic release and vod play on september 14 2018 ey is married to andrea the director admits a dislike for baby boomers' new age spiritual ideals an issue ey addresses in beyond the black rainbow. the use of psychedelic drugs for mind-expansion purposes is also explored although cosmatos' take on it is "dark and disturbing" a "brand of psychedelia that stands in direct opposition to the flower child magic mushroom peace trip" wrote a reviewer describing one of the characters who happened to be a boomer > i look at arboria as kind of naïve. ey had the best of intentions of wanting to expand human consciousness but i think ir ego got in the way of that and ultimately it turned into a poisonous destructive thing. because arboria is trying to control consciousness and control the mind. there is a moment of truth in the film where the whole thing starts to disintegrate because it stops being about ir humanity and becomes about an unattainable goal. that is the "black rainbow": trying to achieve some kind of unattainable state that is ultimately probably destructive // republic of bob