About

This film, for me, is an elegy for a land rotting away, abandoned by its inhabitants.

Angelopoulos's first feature deals with the murder of a Gastarbeiter (guest worker) in the mountainous village of Tymphaia in northern Greece. Returning after a long absence in West Germany – then an important destination of economic migration for Greek men – he is killed by his wife and her lover without explanation. While the crime itself remains unseen, Angelopoulos's film features a reconstruction carried out by the examining magistrate and a dramatisation of events derived from local testimonies. Shot on location with a cast of amateur actors from the village itself, Angelopoulos places the crime and its effects within a broader context of economic decline and mass emigration sweeping Greece during the 1960s. Barren landscapes, intensified by an arresting use of black and white photography, suggest the overwhelming sense of loss experienced in regional areas; the film's opening notes that the village's population has fallen from 1283 to 85 in the 30 years between two national censuses.

Ages 18+