Theo Angelopoulos had only seen one movie, The Beekeeper, and there was another part in the Almanac Everyone Has Their Own Cinema, which I honestly don’t remember. Yesterday I saw his film To meteoro vima tou pelargou, 1991, and I suddenly liked it, although I will not recommend it to everyone.
A television group led by reporter Alexander
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Theo Angelopoulos had only seen one movie, The Beekeeper, and there was another part in the Almanac Everyone Has Their Own Cinema, which I honestly don’t remember. Yesterday I saw his film To meteoro vima tou pelargou, 1991, and I suddenly liked it, although I will not recommend it to everyone. A television group led by reporter Alexander (Gregory Carr) arrives in a small border town on the Albanian-Greek border to film a story about how the numerous refugees the Greek government has placed there live there, conditions that are, to be honest, horrific, but not camps. They are met by the head of the border post, the colonel, who gives him a small tour, in which we first see this symbolic "interrupted step" - he brings him to the dividing line on the bridge, stands on it and raises one leg, saying that you can choose - either go back or step over it and then it is possible that the border guards from the other side will shoot you. This is the theme of borders and becomes one of the main ones in the film, not always literally, sometimes just symbolically, but also in relation to interpersonal ties. In the process of “excursion” Alexander suddenly sees in the market a man whose face seemed to him surprisingly familiar (Marcello Mastroianni), once in Greece was a very popular and successful politician, who predicted a good future until he published his book, to which not everyone was unequivocal, some were outraged, but the majority welcomed the publication of the book. However, after that he spoke in Parliament, saying a few words, and then just disappeared. After some time he reappeared, even met his wife, after which he disappeared completely, everyone decided that he died. Alexander this man was very interested, because the disappearance at one time made a lot of noise, so the story about him could become sensational. He finds the politician's ex-wife (Jeanne Moreau), tries to find out something from her. At first she is not very inclined to communicate, but then she comes to him. Alexander again goes to this town with his group, finds this man again, finds out that he lives there in a small room with three children, and with his daughter the journalist accidentally met and even got close, in principle, it was to her he came, not expecting then to see the sought-after man, whom the girl calls dad. Alexander invites the politician’s ex-wife there, but she will not identify him. They film a story about a meeting on the river – this is what they call regular meetings when people on one side of the border come ashore to “meet” people on the other side of it. This time there is even a wedding, the bride on one side, the groom on the other, the priest even conducts a wedding ceremony, the sought-after man gives away his daughter, in which the journalist has already managed to fall in love, and the steps to rapprochement she made herself. In the end, we see the second aborted step, which was almost taken by a journalist who is in great grief about the wedding, not what he expected. And the sought-after person disappears again, we never know for sure whether it was the same politician or someone else, but the disappearance suggests that it was after all he. The question of the boundaries that humans create and break is always present in the film. Even the colonel mentions this: “These people are striving here for freedom, but the first thing they do is break up into groups between which they establish these boundaries, they are at odds with each other.” Unfortunately, it is everywhere and always. Filmed in a very leisurely manner, the visual side plays a big role in it, as does the music. The actors also play well, not only Mastroianni and Moreau, but the rest. Whether we need borders or better to establish ties, as the last footage of the film with the symbolic restoration of communication lines tells us.
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