Eternal rebellion Born in the 20s in Addis Ababa, Nikos Papatakis by fate, probably, was destined to become an eternal rebel, all his life, from early youth to old age, spent in the struggle. First, in a very specific fight against the Italian invaders who attacked his native Ethiopia. Then, in ephemeral battles against the bourgeois way of life, he joined the great Jean Zhenet in his thieving escapades. Then, again, headlong into politics. In that part of it, when instead of diplomats start talking guns: joining the Algerian rebels fighting for independence. And so on, and so on — but somewhere in the lull of this “eternal battle” managed to make a movie. Perhaps because acquaintance with Sartre, Breton, Vian obliged to take part in the process of artistic creation, but rather for Nikos it was a continuation of the rebellion by other means.
Filmed in Papatakis’ historical homeland, the Shepherds were certainly part of this permanent uprising. Illegally shot in Greece during the military coup, the film seems to contain no direct political allusions, telling a story almost melodramatic, while replete with references to classics (both literary and cinematic). However, the devil, habitually hiding in detail, constantly makes mocking grimaces at the bourgeois-democratic system hated by Nikos. Sometimes, however, it becomes very serious. And then a scene appears on the screen, similar to the one that happens in a cafe between seemingly peacefully drinking ouzo peasants. If someone accidentally recalls the recently ended civil war, a conflict breaks out instantly, dividing people into two equal parts. Just as they stood against each other a few years ago, their hands were clutching their weapons.
Now there is peace in blessed Greece. But Papatakis always wants to take that word in quotation marks. What he does with his film is turn the rural idyll of the Easter village into a tragic farce. Faced with the semi-feudal reality of the Greek hinterland and the anti-human essence of bourgeois society, he (I do not know whether consciously or not) step by step follows the footsteps of A. N. Ostrovsky, creating almost a paraphrase of his “Thunderstorms”. That's just the classics of Russian drama and would not have thought before jumping off a cliff to arrange Katerina such a sadistic test that had to endure Despina before she flew the husk absorbed with the milk of the mother imperatives. In order to experience catharsis, to be reborn to a new life, the daughter of a well-to-do peasant must not just forget about honor - she must publicly dump this very "honor" in the mud, walk her feet, humiliate and humiliate. And then, even for a few minutes, it will be free and unaccountable.
Also, to humiliate and humiliate will have someone whom she loved all her life, but was afraid to admit it – the shepherd Fanos. The poorest inhabitant of the village, the son of the lonely Katina, who was adopted by no one, was an insult to society by the very fact of his birth. After all, his mother is a priest, and the fatherlessness of her son is a double crime against the society that has alienated her. Fanos, who cannot read and write, like his mother, is doomed to eternal humiliation. But Katina, going to match her child to the richest resident of the village Vlahopoulos, transfers his humiliation to his head. He is simply obliged to take revenge, and his anger naturally turns against Phanos, who is simply expelled from the village.
And the exile takes Despina with him. The one for which her father refused to intermarry with his main village rival. He dreams of a “city” life for his children. And I am ready to believe the first person I see, even a student who came with his son on Easter. But instead of a deadly feud between the two families, the hunt for the fugitives to the clamor of the crowd, seated in anticipation of the finale. It is a shame not to be washed away with blood.
Turning a seemingly neorealistic drama into a farce, Papatakis is utterly ruthless towards the old traditionalist society. It probably never occurred to him in those years that forty years later the heirs of the “Lefts” of that time would become defenders of “customs” and “traditions.” However, the classics of neorealism hardly imagined that their ideas would be turned upside down. But time is inexorable, and in the late 60s everything was seen differently than in the late 40s. What about the twenty-first century? However, the storms and winds in our time are no less than it was when the eternal rebel Papatakis shot his second feature film, finding on the set his muse Olga Karlatos, for whom “Shepherds” became the starting point in a long and glorious career. And even if the ideas of the director are not close to you, it is worth watching the film at least for the sake of her Despina.
