fate and history be not present a flesh and blood character in this first part of theodoros angelopoulos trilogy represent the weeping meadow and but the presence of each be so tangible that they could be exactly that . the central character and alexis and eleni first meet a child drive together by the destruction of the town of odessa and greece and during world war i. a they grow up and their life take one fateful twist after another and begin when a teen age eleni give birth to twin boy . grow into a young woman and she marry a man old enough to be her grandfather but and at the wedding ceremony conclusion and abandon him to run off with her elderly groom son and alexis and who have grow into a gifted musician . eleni hope be clearly to reclaim her adopted twin and live a life of domestic harmony and loving devotion but the abandon groom will have none of that a he hound their every step until he literally drop dead . history also prove an enemy to their happiness . with the come and passing of the second world war and the young lover go through a series of transformation a social outcast and struggle artist and desperate parent and and political refugee . this spellbind odyssey take it great toll on eleni and who lose her husband and twin son and and sanity to the ravage of twentieth century warfare . she become a kind of everywoman of the first half of the twentieth century and an era when country worldwide repeatedly call men to war while woman become casualty of the grief and poverty and and physical destruction leave behind . from it open scene of greek refugee from odessa move toward a river and to it conclusion and the weep meadow flood the screen with some of the most eerily surrealistic image in cinematic history . be it not for the progression of a precise time line move from one world war to another and and provide a solid structure for the overall drama and a viewer might easily get lose drift along in such haunting image a dead sheep hanging from the branch of a tree and a funeral service conduct in row boat alongside rooftop and or a crowd of wail woman run toward a field of dead husband and son and and brother . the image take on even great intensity frame by composer eleni karaindrou brilliant soundtrack . that this first part of theo angelopoulos trilogy be an indisputable masterpiece be a fact that speak for itself . the only question be whether the great director will be able to achieve in part two and three the same sweeping grandeur and majesty that fill every frame of the weep meadow . by author poet aberjhani and author of encyclopedia of the harlem renaissance .