Walking through torment The military dictatorship of the “black colonels”, which existed in Greece in 1967-74-ies, was one of the last (if not the last) attempts to create a totalitarian state on the European continent based on right-wing nationalist ideology. At a time when similar regimes of Franco and Salazar in the Iberian Peninsula were living out in recent years, in the Balkans a group of mid-level officers carried out a coup d’état under the slogan “Greece for the Orthodox Greeks”, declaring both traditional European democracy and socialism as hostile to the nation.
As is often the case, such an ideology, appealing primarily to the masses of the people, tired of the permanent political and economic crisis, proved to be disliked by a significant number of Greek creative intelligentsia. Some of its representatives (for example, directors Michalis Kakoyannis, Nikos Kunduros, the brilliant composer Mikis Theodorakis) went to emigrate abroad, others were in a state of internal emigration, showing the authorities a fig in their pocket, or even taking part in certain protests and being arrested for it (as the actor’s married couple Janie Karezi – Kostas Kazakos). Nevertheless, despite the covert and overt sabotage of many artists, the authorities clearly needed the information and propaganda support of their regime. But the leader of the October revolution in the Russian Empire called the main direction, which should pay attention to any self-respecting dictator. The phrase “the most important of the arts” today is customary to use the place and not the place, but for the Greek colonels who came to power led by Georgios Popadopoulos, born in the family of a rural teacher, it was very relevant.
And what can raise the level of patriotism and national pride more than historical and patriotic cinema? The examples of Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union show this most clearly. Large-scale, bright agitations shot by the best directors today attract the attention of thousands of viewers, what can we say about the times when films like Alexander Nevsky and Kohlberg were released on the screen. Caught in a hostile environment, attacked from all sides (both from the capitalist West and from the Communist East), the government of the “black colonels” fought back as best it could. Including with the help of a huge number of historical and patriotic films shot with the involvement of state funds. The film company Phinos Film in these years occupies about the same place in Greece as the famous UFA in Nazi Germany, one after another releasing films about the heroism of the Greeks during the Turkish occupation and World War II. Leading studio directors such as Dimis Dadiras, Nikos Foskolas and Dinos Dimopoulos switch from producing melodramas, comedies and apolitical action films to patriotic epics: Suliots and Lieutenant Natasha, Woman in the Resistance and Mado Mavrogenus, Concerto for Machine Gun and Dawn of Victory.
At the same time, the events of the civil war of the late 40s are practically ignored - they do not fit into the ideology of national and religious unity. Ilias Maharias’s film Grammos, which chronicles the final battle of that confrontation, is a rare exception to the rule, and it emphasizes national reconciliation (the last fight!) rather than the enmity that divided the Greek people. Naturally, it is preferable not to remember about social conflicts - the painting by Nikos Tsimos “Astropoyanos” about the legendary robber who fought against the oppressors of the peasants looks like a lonely pine in a clean field against the benevolent background of national unity outside of class and property differences. However, Tsimas, who was sympathetic to the Communists, was one of those who, making a film allegedly about the struggle against Ottoman rule, kept a fig in his pocket that the censors did not see.
It is difficult to say whether Dimis Dadiras put a double meaning in the short and capacious title of his film. Of course, in retrospect, you might think that the word “No” on the posters of one of the largest historical and patriotic productions of those years looked like a hidden shot at the authorities, but there are no political allusions in the picture itself. As, however, and “hurrah-patriotism”, which at least spared in most of these films of those years. Of course, having a very solid budget by Greek standards and technical support for the army, the director had no right to evade large-scale battle scenes, however, they not only do not replace the plot - rather shade it, give drama and sharpness of feelings. After all, heroes constantly have to make a difficult moral choice: between a quiet life and struggle, between love and country, between honor and conscience, between death and betrayal.
To the Russian viewer, the story of Dimitris Nikolau from the film Dadiras will inevitably remind the fate of Roshchin from the novel by A. N. Tolstoy and the wonderful series by Vasily Ordynsky. A young Greek officer, barely out of school, gets into the meat grinder of the world war. After going through the hell of endless defeats, losing friends, getting injured, he finds himself among the defeated, but not dropped his honor. Now his country is ruled by former enemies, but he may well open the way to a good career. After all, his fiancée, who remained loyal to her lieutenant during the brutal wartime, is the daughter of an Italian colonel who occupies a prominent post in the occupation administration. But Dimitris chooses the side of those who believe in the revival of Hellas with all the ensuing consequences.
Dadiras devoted the entire first half of the picture to large-scale battle productions glorifying the morale of the Greek soldiers, heroically fighting and defeating the Italian occupiers and to the last healthy fighter restraining the German offensive. This part ends with the scene of the surrender of an anti-tank pillbox, which the German Colonel Schweister accepts, giving military honor to his opponents.
But in the second half of the film, taken at first a clear historical and patriotic course, its creators unequivocally said “No” and to the delight of a simple and far from high state interests, the viewer began to actively develop a melodramatic line. That same Colonel Schweister becomes Dimitris' rival in the fight for the heart of his fiancée Stella, who also faces a difficult moral choice. However, as you can guess, love conquers evil, and the underground patriotic organization is replenished with a new member, thanks to whose proximity to the occupation administration, it is now possible to obtain valuable information and so on, and so on. It makes no sense to stop at all the twists and turns of the plot - those who are well acquainted with Soviet historical and revolutionary cinema will find many familiar features in them. But we should pay tribute to the director - with melodramatism he does not overdo it, measuring it exactly as much as is required to maintain the audience interest.
But did he succeed in the “high tragedy” originally conceived? Undoubtedly, “No” is one of the best representatives of military-patriotic cinema, shot under the “colonels”. But the scale of Dadiras’ talent is not comparable to the fact that the gods measured the same Kakoyannis or Kunduros. They are known to have played on the side of the regime’s opponents. Nevertheless, he is a worthy representative of his era, able to tell about it no less than about the time to which the film itself is devoted. That's a lot.