i can pretend no knowledge of cinematography or mr. angelopoulos . but i know greece and i love her people . in july my 14 year old son and i travel to cappadocia and turkey in search of some remains of the neighborhood where his great grandfather iordanis live until the great exodus of anatolian greek in 1923. read the summary of the film ( refugee from odessa ) i think that perhaps i might learn something more about the forced migration of modern greek . if i do not have a home in rhodes and have i not be to greece 28 time in a many year and be i not familiar with dozen of island and city in greece and if i have never enjoy the friendship of these ebullient and life intoxicated people and i might have believe that this lamentation have something to do with modern greece . a a professor at a new jersey state college and let me assure you that i be familiar with the history of the period cover in the film . indeed and my wife uncle be murder by the communist during the communist grab for power . my mother in law live through the italian invasion and german occupation . barely . these character on the screen speak greek and they listen to greek music but who be they . no and they be not even vaguely greek . of course they be not people at all but simply allegory . they be that which the artist invents when life do not entirely fit or be inadequate to his perception of how it be or should have be . all represent some aspect of post wwi greece that great outside force consign to a fate they do not deserve . a we joke in the late 70 in america represent the revolution do not happen . for an ideologue or artist and this be no joke . it in fact ground to put u through two and a half hour of torment . and it all because the various power ( eleni soliloquy of guard in different colored uniform ) do not allow the generation after the aristocrat of 1919 ( spyros ) to follow the call of peace and freedom ( the music of nikos and his fellow musician and i. e. and the movement and the cause ) . this dark and surreal revisionism smear the true and heroic effort of the greek people to sustain their lust for life through the tragedy of the 20th century and to achieve more than any of their balkan neighbor and to have become so politically evolved and globally integrate .