Original subtitles

Go ahead!

My name is P�ricl�s Korovessis. I am 30 years old.

I escaped the prison called Greece with a sole purpose...

To testify.

Korovessis P�ricl�s Writer

I'm one of 10,000 that left Greece after the coup d'�tat.

My case is not unique.

My story is repeated everyday.

Agn�s, you ask me to be a part of your film...

3 years ago, when I was an actor, I would have gladly accepted.

Today, I would rather not talk, especially about my own case.

I would rather be an anonymous person, who was arrested on October 8th 1967.

And after several months of prison and torture, released in March 68.

I became a writer for political reasons.

I wrote a book, The Method, to testify to our responsible conscience,

after testifying at the Court... the Court of Human Rights.

Yes, today everybody believes and knows that...

torture in Greece is practiced by the Colonels' regime...

That it's done systematically and through the administration.

People are genuinely moved by our plight.

They tell us: That's awful! How can this happen?

But then...

the conversation moves on to fashion, entertainment or cars.

If those asking happen to be journalists...

my interview is published next to an ad for Greek tourism.

People seem to forget that torture is just politics in another form.

Torture is nothing else than a prolongation of existing social oppression.

Torture's goal is to obtain our silence and our submission.

I fled Greece illegally.

I don't think of myself as a refugee, but as a voluntary exile among many.

It's time to take back ancient art.

We have to marry plastic to marble.

Bronze and Plexiglas, stone and polyester.

On its back. No, on its side! Like that, very good.

Marble and plastic. We must pulverize past notions.

Everything is present, everything is ours. Re-usable.

You hear this kids, re-usable! - Re-usable. - Yes sir, re-usable.

Did you take note? - Yes, Mr. I.D.

The strike is coming.

I'm about to have an idea! Come on, undress! All of you!

Men in white, girls in black! You should have left already.

So annoying, the Greeks...

That the Greeks are always nude is one thing, but always standing?

What about a squatting scribe? - Scribe? - Squatting Scribe?

Why not a gladiator? - Mr. I.D. already has a scribe.

I'm a standing scribe.

A squatting scribe, of course!! On a round armchair. What a match!

Of course. That's very good!! But it's not of its era. Geographically it's off.

Anachronisms are modern! - What if we say he's an exile.

A refugee!! It must have existed. - That girl is great! What's your name?

Rosalie. - I'll remember that!

Christian and Greek!!

We must bring back the Greek chorus!! Tragic choirs.

The two big emotions of Greek tragedies, terror and pity. - Yes.

Come on my darlings, cry, cry!! I want to hear you cry.

Come on, soften my heart.

Excuse me, I'm looking for the Evacuee Committee.

Ask the cashier.

We're the set-dressers.

Come on. There's no peace and quiet in this shop!

Shop. That's the right word. - Small shops have big ideas!

An idea!

Big ideas make money. Little shop, big money. That's obvious.

Sir, your tea. - Thank you.

Want me to bring you some cookies? - No, thank you.

Long live advertisement. Long live promotion and decoration.

Excuse me, nobody has been able to tell me.

I've just come from Athens,

I have no papers, no money, no work or place to stay.

Mister, I have to find the committee.

My dear man, we are not the Red Cross.

Eveson, get rid of him. - Get rid of him!

What a time! We're up to our necks in Greeks around here!!

Now everybody take their place for the bow!

This was the first skit: The Displaced Person.

or, Hightail It Back to Greece! - Sculpture from 4th or 5th century BC.

Except for the Scribe. - Plaster provided by Tartanpion.

Blow ups done by Roumette Studios. - Furniture by Cassard.

Directed by Mr. I.D.

No show-boater, your promoter.

Sell out!! It's disgusting!

We want our money back! This is pathetic!!

Hello madam, the landlord, a man of taste, gave us your address.

We thought you might like to take a look at these books.

I'm sure you'll want to buy them. This one is an encyclopedia of art BC.

Why would I buy this? - To look at them, to read them.

I'm sure you want to forget about housework and dishes sometimes.

And this one here, can I forget him?

Having a child is hell. - Art is a great comfort.

If only it was free, like religion. - It's not expensive, you can pay monthly!

With what my husband gives me... Anyway, I don't make decisions.

- Is your husband home? - At this time of day?! Don't you think he's busy?

Do you want me to come back later? - Sure, come back, after 6pm.

One understands, on visiting this palace, how it gave birth to the legend

of a labyrinth, in which a bull-headed monster

demanded heavy tributes from surrounding Greek cities

and in which no one could find their bearings.

In the throne room, Minos received embassies from around the world,

with whom he did business due to the wealth from his grain.

These frescoes conserved on the palace walls show us

the arrival of the ambassadors,

processions, religious celebrations, that animated the palace.

You probably recognize The Parisian.

These celebrations were attended by by men and women, the ones

that English archeologists called by name Parisians,

evoking a Belle �poque vibe.

Languorous, made up eyes, painted mouth. Spirited and attractive profile...

Very different from the austere women of antique and classical Greece.

This is the Fleur-de-lis prince. The young king himself

is depicted here as a young man with an ostrich feather headdress,

walking through the flowers with almost unreal grace.

The image, shoulders facing us, body in profile,

recaptures the conventions of Egyptian art,

that is to say the maximum representation.

Are we going to the library? - After we go eat at Mabillon's.

No, I still have to sell these crappy art books.

I'm sure you�ll want to buy one, at least the one on Greek art.

Greek art?! As if I had time for that.

What happened?

What's happened?

He got his head stuck between the bars.

And she fainted, she's expecting.

Sally? - I'm here.

Good evening. - Hi!

Do you want to hear about my day?

Intense rehearsals, fights with the director.

They want to throw us out. I didn't have time to shop.

I have a headache. This room is a mess.

What about you? - Door-to-door is exhausting.

I'm too tired to get my turtle. - I'll bring her to you.

It turned into a news item, a kid's head got stuck in the bannisters.

His head!

The whole building was freaked out, I was looking for the dad. Like that.

Obviously, I didn't sell anything. Except an encyclopedia this morning.

I'm tired of other people's problems. - Speaking of which,

there's a huge Greek exodus and Pierrot asked if we could take one in?

I told him we could, if you were willing to share a bed with me.

Yes, of course we can. - Yours or mine?

Your what? - Room!

As you wish, I only have a few books and you've got plenty of stuff.

Let's give him mine, it'll be less of a hassle.

Here, start tidying. - That's all I do!! You tidy up too!

There's no rush. - Well actually, I already said yes.

I was sure you'd agree, so they'll be here soon.

There's two of them? - No, a guy from the committee

is escorting our tenant. - Does he speak any French?

I dunno.

On April 21st 1967, the Greek military took over power

and formal democracy was abolished. I remember, it was 4am

when my neighbour, who was a friend, came to wake me up.

He told me there were tanks in the streets of Athens.

Economist responsible for Democratic Defense.

Flowers don't grow in the desert. The coup d'�tat happened on April 21st.

It's because there was a mounting threat, one could say,

the ending of an escalation, that we need to go back a few years

to understand how this coup d'�tat came to be.

And by whom.

We need to go back to the moment when the British, after having crushed

the resistance, in 1944-45,

when the Civil War started, they could no longer take responsibility in Greece

and in March 1947 they passed their responsibility on to the Americans.

And that's when the Government, with U.S.A.'s help, managed

to win the war against the communists.

After the end of the Civil War

the Americans were the real masters of Greece.

The King was only the Viceroy of the United States.

Later there was an extremely important popular movement

that started after the violent fixed elections of 1961.

which brought to power the centrist coalition,

a party formed by many smaller party, a true mosaic,

whose only common ground was a dedication to formal democracy

and after a merciless struggle, a popular mobilization

that lasted from 1961 to 1963,

this merciless struggle culminated in the murder of Lombrakis,

progressist deputy at Thessaloniki,

an event that everyone knows because of Vassilikos' novel , "Z".

This popular movement had to be dismantled

to get to the elections that were desired by the people.

On May 28th 1967, elections were announced.

And it became obvious

as the popular movement had not been dismantled, that they would win.

At that moment, the colonels, a group of colonels

that had been well positioned, as at the same time

they had all been formed by the C.I.A. in America.

As they were all in the Intelligence Service,

in the army's secret service,

they were well aware of the Prometheus plan.

So this plan, which had been triggered,

this NATO plan, April 21st, this plan triggered,

led to the colonels taking over power.

I'll get rid of the map, it's a bit much.

Close the kitchen door.

Hi! - Hi. I brought my friend.

How are you? - Good.

Does your friend speak French? - Yes, pretty well.

Come in. - Hi.

The room's not quite ready. - It should be in a minute.

No worries. You're very kind to host me.

I'll try not to be a bother.

We'll show you the kitchen, W.C. etc...

Great.

Basil is here. - Yes.

I'll come to take you, we'll go see him. - Yes.

I hope you'll be alright. The room is fine.

It's splendid actually.

We'll tell Iannis you're here, you know he's in London?

There you go, jam and a glass of water.

That's Greek hospitality, right? - Yes, that's right.

Right now there are 380,000 exiled Greeks in Europe.

30,000 in Eastern Europe, 250,000 in Germany and 20,000 in France.

Before the coup, only 20,000 Greeks a year would leave their country.

Since the coup, 95,000 leave a year. They are looking for bread and freedom.

My name is Andreas Nicolopoulos. I was born in Athens. I'm 25.

Student

My life in Greece was simple. I did my military service four times.

That's all. Once with my family,

another time in school, then college, then the real service.

My activities in the military, as a militant...

were interrupted by the coup d'�tat.

Then I hurriedly left Greece.

I arrived in Paris without knowing a single word of French.

I immediately joined the Greek community.

I kept up my political activities.

Obviously I am now sentenced

to 20 years in prison.

I am extremely homesick. I miss everything.

The rocks, the air, the atmosphere.

I have no real contact with any Greeks,

not even with my family.

My name is Iannis Angelopoulos. I am a journalist.

At least I was, back in Greece before the coup d'�tat.

I left Greece and arrived in France four days after the coup.

Now I'm no longer a journalist, because I have to make a living.

I work here as a packer.

Angelopoulos Iannis Editor in chief

In Greece I was editor in chief of a leftist daily newspaper.

Of course after the coup d'�tat this newspaper was banned.

All of my colleagues or most of my colleagues

were arrested and exiled.

The change is not only that I'm now packing up things,

it's also a moral change.

As a political refugee, I have a strange feeling,

like an intellectual tramp.

My name is Marius Ioannidis I was born in Crete.

Ionnidis Marcos - Geologist On April 21st 1967

some friends and I were arrested almost immediately.

We were then taken to jail.

We were there for ten days or so.

The military police accused my sister and then

sentenced her to three years in prison.

My sister was released a few months later.

Then my brother was arrested and sentenced to 11 years in jail.

I found the opportunity, as I had a passport,

to get out of the country and settle in France.

My old mother left Crete for Athens to be able to see my brother.

I found a job as a nightwatchman and I can't complain.

Despite my love for France, I feel Greek.

What I miss about Greece?

The sun, maybe, the sea.

Or the opportunity to speak Greek freely with my friends.

Friends who are now in prison or in concentration camps.

We feel like strangers in France, but maybe less than in the rest of Europe

But nevertheless, we are foreigners.

Hello, how are you? - Fine.

You're here now. Have you been here long?

No, only six days. - Six days? - Yes.

Excuse me. - Ah, it's OK.

Everyday, yes. Hello.

Hello, how are you? You found it easily? - Yes.

Come, come.

So, we are good for tonight?

I don't have the address yet.

But I'll come and we'll go together. You'll go directly to Olympia.

I'll go take Mikaelis and we'll go together.

Hi, Agn�s! So you're finally making your film after three years.

I remember you talked about it in May 1967.

When I was staying at your place.

I wish I could have shot it then, but better now than never.

The situation has changed a lot since then.

It's not the same for us exiled Greeks.

Yes, the news is different, but the subject is the same.

The search for Greek identity... remains.

What is a Greek?

The Greek identity problem

is as complex and unclear as the Greek language itself.

We say beautiful like Apollo. Tragic like Antigone.

That's the Mediterranean tragedy. That's the foreigner's idea of Greece.

Or Zorba the Greek male, who's warm and likes to dance.

We have a different notion of our own country.

We were just getting comfortable with our own identity, the conscience of a nation.

The idea that our songs, our poets, our painters

have no need to envy other countries.

Right at that moment comes the coup

and that awareness of identity explodes in a thousand little pieces.

When we arrive, we feel so much disorientated

and by now we feel good.

This looks like a Greek house, by the way.

Every Greek that's come here has said as much.

It's like being in a Greek house. But I've never been to Greece.

But you have a Greek Father?

Yes, my father was Greek. But he never took us there.

I was fascinated though.

I was 4 years at the �cole Du Louvre where I studied Greek Architecture.

I wanted to go but I had no money then.

And then time went by...

You'll come one day when it's all over, you promise?

Yes, when it's all over, I promise.

Look. It's beautiful.

There's not much original material. - Don't talk so much, write.

Antique copy of an antique, that is mostly true.

Hey, look here. The famous Hermaphroditus.

The antique dream.

We can't see anything! Bunch of prudes at the National Museum.

They blocked it so we can't look. - But we'll look at it anyway, Marc.

Bye, girls! - Goodbye!

I'm picking up my books.

There's a sales assistant place if anyone's interested.

I'll let the others know. Thank you for my books.

There's a sales assistant job here, are you interested?

Dunno. - Is it well paid?

Is it well paid to sell Samothrace's hearts,

Milo, smiling satyrs...

and place orders?

Rancor takes away my breath. Let's take a walk on the waterfront.

No, I'm going home to work. - Me too, my friend is waiting.

Give me back my books! Why did you take them?

First answer, no. Second answer, because I can't afford them.

That's no reason to take them! - Of course it's a good reason!

The motive of theft is need. I need art books just like you.

That makes no sense, give them back! - Property is theft, have a look.

It's a slogan.

Fine steal books, but I need mine! - You youngsters are all the same!

You all want a revolution, cultural even better. But only if we bother old people,

the bourgeois. To rob the old but not them.

But not you youngsters, blessed youth, bourgeois or not!

That's not the point. You're exaggerating. These books aren't mine.

I have to sell them. - Even better then, why complain?

Listen, I'll have to pay for them. - If you can afford them you must have money.

It's better that I, who can't afford them, have the books.

That's enough, give me back my books!! - Stop it, I'm much stronger than you.

I'll call someone. - Who, those people?

I'll say they're my books which you want. - They won't believe you.

Why? Because I'm badly dressed?

I'll say you're the liar, I'll prove it. - How?

I'll tell them the truth. These books aren't yours, you told me yourself.

I'm going to call now! - People'll think it's a lovers' spat.

I'll kiss you. - You're nuts, give me my books!

Call the cops, then. But you won't dare. Cops make you a little sick, don't they?

Let a poor art lover, deprived of culture, rot in jail, no art books, no sun,

You wouldn't dare.

Peace.

I hated Paris, except for L'�le de la cit�, shaped like a boat.

I couldn't get used to it. I looked for S�te's harbour on the Seine's quays..

I couldn't get used to the north, I looked for the south in the markets.

Hello. - Hello

I haven't told you...

My father was Greek.

Do you speak Greek?

No, he died when I was little. My mother came back to France with me.

I'm only half Greek. I'd like to go. I have a wonderful notion of Greece.

Even with what's going on. It's not very nice to say that.

I think it's nice. I hope to welcome you to Greece someday.

I already know it, through books, images, guides. The Odyssey.

I have it all in my head as though I'd seen it.

I'm keeping you, sorry. - Not at all!

Of course I have a different concept of Greece. I'm a journalist.

When I was your age, it was the war, the resistance and then civil war.

And for twenty years, struggle,

clandestinely more or less, friends in jail.

So you understand, the Greece of tourists, it's not ours.

Well I can talk to you about Greece as a tourist, but not as a...

Well as a tourist, do the events in Greece bother you?

No. If you look into it, it's bothersome. But if you're just visiting, no.

You know if you look at what's going on in France, it's bothersome.

Nothing's happening and also a lot's happening.

It's kind of the same thing over there.

I loved Greece, all the islands. - We went on a cruise.

We went on a cruise.

Do the current events in Greece bother you?

I don't follow politics, really. - We don't know about politics.

We're not well informed. - But I love Greece.

It's very beautiful! The sky is marvelous. It's beautiful.

I love Greece. I've been going for a club for 12 years.

I was there two weeks ago. - You don't mind what's happening there?

I go there for my work

and I haven't run into any more trouble than before.

Thank you.

I would like to work for the club during the holiday.

Yes, ask that young blonde woman over there.

I would like to go to Greece and work for the club there.

Sit down, please, I'll see if my boss can see you.

Everything, the music, the Greek people, who are charming, nice.

And above all the country, of course.

Greece is beautiful.

The ballad of Andrikou: Mikis Theodorakis

I went to see, what's it called...

the Acropolis.

Anyhow, I really liked Greece. I would go back, certainly.

Are you bothered by the current events there?

Yes, because I have a friend there who's a teacher in Pargas.

An he's got into real trouble and I feel bad for him.

I've been to Greece a lot and I don't think I'll go back.

Because it's not possible any more.

It's stifling. You can sense that there's the facade and then the rest.

It's a militarized country.

Before the military came in, there was some justice, not much.

But with the military, it's hopeless.

Very pretty, very nice.

These are internal politics only, it's not the tourists' business.

I saw the Acropolis, I saw Piraeus.

I walked around.

When did you go?

Oh, let me see... 1923.

You haven't gone back since? - No.

Are you interested by what's currently going on there?

I have nothing to say on the subject.

I've got nothing to say. I'm not a colonel, nor...

a musician, nor a singer, nor a journalist.

But as a human being did you like Greece?

I adore Greece, it's lovely. Of course.

There's sun. It's a sunny country and a country of culture, if I may say.

Have you been recently? - No, two years ago.

Would you go back now? - With pleasure, buy me a ticket!

Are you bothered by what's happening in Greece?

Oh no, not at all. I don't mess with politics.

That's it.

A position, no, we're completely full. It's much too late.

Hopefully, next year, if you want.

But it can't be too late, there's still so much time!

What's going on? - I want to go to Greece, I need to!

Ah that's great, to do what? - I'm an archeology student.

I would like to give lectures,

or anything to do with my studies.

Could you talk about Greece? Give a lecture? - Yes, of course!

What would you talk about? - Mycenae, Delphi...

We have a village in Ikaelon, you know where that is?

Yes it's not far, from Corinth, Mycenae and Argos.

Yes, I guess you could do something. - Thank you, sir.

I would go to visit the concentration camps.

And you? - I've never been. - Would you want to go? - Not now, no.

Oh the Greek islands..!

What a lovely landscape! Oh, a shepherd, hello, my good man.

Over there is Gioura, a deserted island.

There are now 6,500 deported there.

Among them 200 children and babies under a year old.

The climate kills all vegetation.

And there are strong winds every day.

From these rocks the convicts watch the sea.

It's Ulysses and his companions kept prisoner on the island!

Where Calypso kept them under her spell. as it was told in the Odyssey.

A translation in Alexandria, by Victor B�rard.

When she found him, he was on the cape

always seated, eyes always bathed in tears

losing the sweet life, crying for the return

He who tastes no more the spell of the nymph

What nymph? - Calypso!

Was she beautiful, Calypso? - Divine, actually she was a goddess.

The other island, further off, is Makronisos,

4,000 people are held there. There is no water on the island.

The water is brought from the mainland in barrels.

You can guess how dirty those camps are. The men are being treated like pigs.

Like Ulysses' companions, turned into pigs by the sorceress Circe.

The Odyssey says, same edition, same translation:

They had the head, the voice and the bristles. They had the bearing.

But in them persisted their mind as before.

There they were entrapped.

Circe threw down for them chestnuts, acorns to swallow,

regular fodder for pigs that wallow.

And Ulysses? - Ulysses resists the drug but resists less the sorceress.

He climbs into Circe's bed but makes this condition:

He asks for the release of his companions.

All freed, as men again, they party at Circe's.

Was Circe beautiful? - Divine, actually she was a goddess.

Down there is the island of Hymes which was also turned into a prison.

A snake bit me, I'm going to die!

Don't panic, don't panic. I hate snakes!

I detest snakes.

What a nuisance.

No, girly, don't be frightened, girly.

Oh! I hate blood!

Can you walk? - Oh no, I'm scared.

Wait.

What a nuisance!

Now we've finished with the lambs, here come the tourists. - Yes, yes.

That was the second skit. - Shot in Provence.

Music by Mikis Theodorakis accompanied by the Mistral wind.

My father always talked about the islands that he explored with childhood friends.

Boats were the only way around and guitars the only instruments.

Dad forgot the Greek songs, Greece itself, but not the guitar.

He would play the song by Tino Rossi: Corsica, Island of Love.

One island was as good as another.

What's he writing about?

He's a journalist, well he was there.

Maybe he writes for underground newspapers.

Or maybe just letters to his family. Is he married, do you think?

I should think so, at his age.

He looks very sad anyway.

Turn off the lights, I'm tired.

Goodnight. - Goodnight.

As a writer in exile I continue...

to write, of course in Greek.

And it's this identity I'm looking for.

Greek identity. Writer.

There are five languages within our Greek language.

There's the language of the ancient Greek tragedies;

the language of the bible, byzantine language;

there's the purist language used by universities;

and the popular language, the demotic.

And also the journalistic language which is a sort of blend of the other five.

So for us the problem is always...

which language do we choose to communicate with.

One of the first things the Colonels did once they took power

was to create a divorce between the popular language and the people,

to put in practice the divorce between culture and people,

by imposing in schools and universities a purist language.

This you can easily relate to medieval obscurantism...

Byzantine.

Which halted the progress made in Greece towards

a language we could all talk, all write and all understand.

Another thing they did was to abolish from secondary, primary schools.

set theory in maths, modern mathematics.

That also for understandable reasons.

Because it's a theory that would develop in a child's brain,

the idea of notion and not the idea of being.

This is an undeveloped state of mind.

And they are trying to keep the country underdeveloped.

And beyond that they committed this crime

on an entire generation today.

I find they've banned many books,

beginning with old Greek tragedies up to modern works.

And their anti-communism goes as far as banning inconceivable things,

like a Greek-Bulgarian dictionary or Chinese cook books.

Hello. - Hello, do you want coffee?

Thank you. - Come and sit down.

I'm happy to see you, I wanted to tell you

I'll be gone for a few days, so I'm returning the key.

You'll be back? - If you don't mind having me.

Until I find something else. - Better, I hope.

I just don't want to bother you. - Not at all, don't worry.

Thank you, miss.

Don't call us miss, I'm Rosalie, she's Agn�s.

And me, Michel. - How do you say it in Greece?

Mikaelis. - And Agn�s?

Agni, it means pure. - Pure, that makes me sound silly.

Not at all.

Hello, madam.

I'm looking for day care. - In which neighborhood?

I live in Ivry. - Go to the town hall in your section.

The social worker will give you all the information you need.

The political exile, is often viewed as a romantic and sentimental figure.

I don't accept that, because it's usually a dumpster for guilty consciences.

The exile is viewed as a poor foreigner exiled for this or that reason,

for whatever political reason,

without really looking into the real social reasons,

political or economic for this emigration.

We have to differentiate between two separate domains.

Immigration as it has been since antiquity and the last century in Greece,

for economic reasons; and today

an intellectual immigration, which leaves the regime for truly political reasons.

These people who abandon their country are indeed true refugees,

but not in the way of impoverished emigrants

who may be pointed out in a sentimental and tearful way,

but in the way of making a concrete struggle

against the actual regime in Greece.

This struggle belongs

in the framework of a certain class struggle in Greece.

What does all this mean? Why?

Is it wasted paper, confetti?

What you call a confetti war is called education. - Education?

The 16 people who took our tracts are from our side. Who have we convinced?

We have proven their power once again.

One must be patient when struggling.

How did it go at the theater? - Not bad.

What are you reading? - The Odyssey.

Did you eat? - Yeah, the usual time.

Here.

The struggle went badly, the jails are full.

We find ourselves outside, they reign with everyone's consent, from East and West.

I won't continue like this.

We need to keep calm, this is not over.

We need to decide on the printing house.

It seems you reserve special treatment for those at the printing house.

The danger is the same, the guys are ready for action.

So are we ready for action?

But our organizational skills are few.

The world was not ready for that.

You had a wonderful resistance movement, everyone saw that.

After liberation, you had the biggest party.

But then you didn't go for government and you didn't claim to go.

Instead of having a revolution, you've been pushed

into civil war, and you've lost it.

Since then the feeling of failure is there.

You're afraid and you've kept losing influence ever since.

The same policy, the same faults for 30 years.

It's better to carry out our responsibilities for the past,

to get rid of our illusions and fantasies. Goodbye.

Goodbye.

They are right, we've become tradesmen.

In the mountains we were fighting for something.

You're wrong, the movement isn't limited to that.

We're in a crisis, that's it.

But going to the mountains is not the solution.

For a quarter century, the Doric spirit triumphed.

In architecture this means the same type we've studied

with Apollo's temple in Corinth, middle of the sixth century,

which can be described as

a column with 24 grooves without base

on the 3D socle,

topped by a capital with two elements, the echinus and the abacus.

On the entablature, a frieze, with alternate metopes and triglyphs.

For the Parthenon the building is much larger. 8 columns in front, 17 on the side,

larger than the classic Doric construction.

There was a cell of huge dimensions, where the statue of the goddess was placed.

The Germans had raised the Nazi flag on the Acropolis.

During the night of May 30th 1941, two boys,

Manolis Glezos, and Apostolos Santas, dared to tear it down.

Glezos, one of the two, currently imprisoned on Yaros Island,

has told the story of their exploit.

It's a beautiful night, we walk across the old Plata neighborhood.

We've only brought one flashlight, that's all.

Looking up we can see the German sentries.

We jump over barb wire which encircles the small pine grove

on the north side of the Acropolis.

We walk slowly in single file.

We climb the rocks

and stand before a little wooden door cut into the wall.

It was through here that snakes were introduced into Pallas Athena's temple.

Out of breath, we sneak in.

The surrounding marble takes on odd shapes under the moonlight.

Running, we reach the pole were flies the Nazi flag.

The sun will rise over the Acropolis with a pure sky.

Taking down the flag was the starting signal of Greek resistance.

The names of the brave perpetrators were only learned after the war.

Glezos was a law student, Santas studied commerce.

They belonged to no political group and their act had been spontaneous,

guerrilla style, if you will,

on that night, May 30th 1941.

May 30th 1941 I was exactly thirteen, as I was born on this actual date.

In 1941 I was becoming a young girl but I didn't care about it,

nor about the nation's problems.

Everyday at school, raising the flag, we'd sing

Marshal, here we are!

He even came from S�te, he was old.

For my 13th birthday I received a bible that I read right through for months.

It scared me. My mother thought we needed God.

We didn't know Him well as we were not baptized.

My Greek father was against this. He was a free thinker.

The word Freethinker impressed me.

My father had left Smyrna and the orthodox religion at 20.

He came to France, Montpelier, for his engineering studies.

When WWI started he enlisted in the Foreign Legion.

A simple soldier in the trenches, corporal at Marne and wounded at Verdun.

The clich�s about an outdated war was his life.

He won a large scar, a medal and a French passport.

My legionnaire father was demobilized in late 1916

and then worked as a draughtsman then engineer in an arms factory.

Hello, is this where the factory bus stops?

Yes, sir, in 10 minutes, just here.

A coffee then. - Coffee or cr�me?

Set breakfast.

I'd also like to shave. - No problem, the restroom's there.

Thanks.

Not long after, my father was running this little factory.

They would make these beautiful copper shells

whose base is often found over veterans' fireplaces.

Later he would draw bridges and cranes.

Later again he ran another factory, becoming a respected businessman

who had made it.

Come in.

Hello, Madam.

I am Mr Alexiou. - I was expecting you, one moment.

Mr Darvatis, Mr Alexiou is in my office. You received a letter about him.

Right away, sir.

I'll take you through.

So Madame Candas, we need to find a hotel room for this gentleman

for two nights at the Hotel de Commerce or Globe.

Type a letter please, asking my colleagues in the local factories

to hold a warm welcome for Mr Alexiou, who is collecting for Greek refugees.

The factory will contribute 2,000 francs and I will personally add 1,000 francs.

Don't forget to mention

that if there is a possibility of hiring, these guys are willing and able.

Prepare the checks and ask one of our chauffeurs, Lambert, for example,

to be at Mr Alexiou's disposal this afternoon and all day tomorrow.

And don't forget the factory addresses. Right, I'll leave you.

I'll see if I can hire some workers.

Have lunch at the hotel and the car will come at 1:30.

I'll take care of all the bills. Don't worry.

Thank you again.

You'll see these bosses are good people.

Let's try to have dinner...

No, Thursday, noon. Let's have lunch after your tour to sum it up.

OK see you on Thursday then. Thank you, Madame.

Mr Alexiou, the Hotel Du Globe is the best. I'll book it for you.

It's right in the center.

Thank you very much. - Have a nice day.

Sunnier than Paris right?

The sunlight is similar to ours in Greece.

You never wear sunglasses? - No.

You like the south of France? - Yes, especially the olive trees.

Song: Maria Farandouri

In France there are 2,500 Greek workers.

Outside of a handful of shepherds, they all work in factories.

They are not political refugees, but they are politically involved.

This will put pressure on them from the Church and the Embassy.

My name is Dimitrios, I've lived in France for two years.

I work at the Citro�n Factory and live in Ch�tenay-Malabry,

with some Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese friends.

In our apartments, we are two in each bedroom.

We do shift work so we have problems sleeping well.

We live in Paris but we never go there,

as we have nine and a half hours shifts.

Plus we live very far and it takes us 90 minutes, sometimes two hours

to go back home.

Plus there is another problem for us.

We don't understand, don't speak the same language.

It's hard to forget you're in exile,

as bosses in Greece or in France are the same.

One last thing: there's not much sun here,

but in Greece there's so much.

I thought S�te would be sunny

and I wanted to show the port to my friend Stavros, a Greek exile,

playing the role of Michel, a Greek exile.

I was disappointed with the rain,

but suddenly on the quayside a Greek boat.

Stavros goes to the Greek sailors but we have no sound engineer.

Why? Rather ask RTF how long is a piece of string.

We recorded as well as we could, but because of the union policy

we do not have the right to use the non-union sound of this Greek reunion.

What the sailors told Stavros among the salutations and ordinary questions

was another Greek boat had missed the port entrance because of the fog

and was stranded on the beach.

The insurance company are playing hardball and the sailors are stranded.

They've lost hope, we must see them.

We went to see the stranded boat.

It was like another country, an unknown beach, unknown port.

S�te stays for me the most incredible harbor in the world.

My childhood is drawn in this town, en-squared by water.

Memories punctuated by sirens, whose number tells of the bridges to be opened.

Good evening - Good evening. Are you settled in?

Take a seat.

Would you like something?- No thanks, I've already eaten. I was just making a call.

And your tour? - It went well, Mr Darvatis's letter impressed everyone.

He's an impressive man, full of authority like most Greeks.

I'm not, or so I think.

I only know two Greek men: my boss and my husband.

Your husband? - Yes, I'm a widow

I'm so sorry. - It's been a long time.

I was living in Athens in 45-46

During the civil war, a terrible time.

Yes it was terrible. My husband died during one fight.

I was pregnant and speaking no Greek,

I didn't know how to find his family.

They were living in Corinth, in a big house on the hill but...

how to go there, how to find them...

So I was repatriated and since then I'm here.

What was his name? - Candas

I know many Candas, his first name?

I called him Miko; his real name was Evangelos.

Nothing in common, I suppose.

I had a good friend named Candas but not Miko or Evangelos.

A lot of people died, the famine was terrible.

You must have terrible memories of our country.

But he was so wonderful.

Since his death.. I'm glad I can speak with you.

Nobody understands what I lived through. My daughter never knew her father.

Does she live with you? It's better to have a child.

No, she's been Paris for a year. I'm all alone now.

So why stay here?

I have my parents' house. Some family and friends.

I'm not that adventurous. It's probably too late.

It's never too late, so they say.

But you too...

For us now, everything is in disarray.

I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. - I'll walk you back.

It's very quiet here at night. - Too quiet.

It feels like our curfew.

What is happening right now in Greece...

The installation of a military power...

basically it is happening everywhere.

We need to ask ourselves why?

Why a series of military regimes everywhere?

Why authoritarian regimes everywhere, why dictatorships everywhere?

Today the army is present everywhere.

The most effective ideal of modern society.

In that sense they are accepting the role of provoking

or bringing evolution

which aims to re-organize society and to modernize it.

That is a modernization strictly linked to the development

of technology, of automation, in order to achieve absolute control, and so on.

Besides...

A computer was used for the arrests.

The only computer we had in Greece, funnily enough.

The first computer in Greece

was not for production but for security.

It is this computer that planned the arrests.

Greece is in Europe, not as far as you may think.

And what happened in Greece is if you like... a life test.

If it worked there, why not somewhere else?

Abroad, people are trying to exorcise this evil,

saying things are completely different there than here,

so that the danger is not that close.

On the other hand they are baffled with the general lack of resistance in Greece.

The main resistance organizations, the Democratic Front and the Patriotic Front

put out a call for general resistance.

That call one can say was not...

generally followed, but very seldom followed.

A second fact...

is that, the regime hasn't had up till now a popular following.

It is as isolated as at the beginning.

Democracy, come here right now! Come here!

You haven't signed and you think you're going out?

I wasn't going out. - Don't contradict.

You deserve to be hit. - Mom, we've been hit already.

If you complain you'll be hit twice.

Turn around - Not on the back, on the front.

Rebel! Turn Around!

Where are you going? To the left? Don't even think of it.

There'll be no communist in my family! - Mom, you see evil everywhere!

You want to be hit again? - No, I want my freedom.

No way, you will remain in chains.

And for your punishment you will walk...

around the carpet and don't cross the border.

Or I'll knock your block off!

Stop walking!

Come here.

See this certificate on the table? It's for loyal and patriotic people.

Yes, I know this piece of crap. - Are you insulting the law?

I'll brain you!

You need this certificate for school!

I won't go. - Then you'll be illiterate.

underdeveloped, poor.

That's they want don't they?

Listen...

I'm being reasonable.

I'm being straight with you.

But try to understand!

You just have to sign the certificate.

Do you like soldiers? - No!

Well Colonels at least? - No! - Blasphemy, your father was a colonel.

I'll scream! - Blasphemy!

Pee pee pee...

Go on, to the toilet. No, wait a second!

First sign! - No!

I'll punish you! Under the table! And stay there.

No sleep, no food, no drink... and no pee pee! - I'll scream.

Welcome, Sir.

Colonel Ass. - Assassin! - Colonel Ass. - Assassin! - My brother.

Colonel In.

Ass plus Ass plus In makes Assassin!

Did you say something? - I haven't said a thing,

it must be the echo, Colonel Ass.

Assassin! - You spoke?

Not at all! I was just reading this marvelous declaration of belief,

that we'll all sign with relief!

Wuff wuff! - Has your dog signed?

No, he's a shepherd, so naturally he's rebellious.

Re-bel, like the liberty bell.

Then bring it to us and we'll make it sign - I'll be the sign!

We'll hit him, we'll prank him, we'll starve him!

We'll kill him! - Please not my dog

Then make him sign. Let him be proud of his dog's life.

And don't forget the curfew!

Put out your fire, or we'll shoot down your chimney on leaving.

We'll be back and if your dog want's to keep his dog's life... he'll sign!

Music: Maria Farandouri

Cheers!

Thank you.

Sorry to be late.

I won't even have time to lunch. The conference overran.

Don't worry about it. You've done so much already.

I like to be helpful.

That's the privilege of success. - Waiter...

What about a starter? A little appetizer?

Caviar?

So caviar, toast and champagne.

Champagne isn't necessary. - Well, you've not had the occasion lately.

For me it's different. Business dinners, foreign clients,

good manners, I eat too well.

It's the downside of being president.

The collection was successful, I brought back some money

and promises of jobs in your factory.

I hope they'll be good workers, as Greek or not,

no productivity is no help for me. - You've already told me.

In the other factories, there are no jobs and worse, they're xenophobic.

Being a former stranger, I understand perfectly your problems.

But 20 years ago I took French nationality and completely renounced Greece.

Even my children have no Greek connection.

This is how my father, renouncing Greece, deprived me of it.

And how, opposing him, I chose my origins.

Why these carnations?

Because Belloyanis, communist party member, shot in 52,

always wore a red carnation during his trial.

Female political prisoners sent him these carnations.

And since then, everybody wears a red carnation during protests.

This flower has became a symbol.

And why this plaster, bandages?

And this barbed wire?

That's all you see right now.

I've planned and realized these works in Greece.

I used my usual material for this.

But also used material corresponding to the speech by Papadopoulos

that was putting the Greek people in plaster.

Only a people cannot be in plaster.

It is simply a man like you and me,

praying in that plaster,

restrained, oppressed.

offering his arms, but at the same time a flower of struggle and survival.

It's that simple.

That is what I wanted to do, to make this dialogue more direct...

and more efficient. Because finally this exhibition,

these exhibitions are struggles you have with your work

and with your own life,

I wanted to bring you a list of people dealing with foreign workers in Nimes.

That is very nice. - You could get lost in these hallways.

I also wanted to wish you a good trip.

Thank you.

I lied to you yesterday.

That Greek in Athens wasn't my husband.

He never wanted to marry me.

I was young, not even 20.

I was working at the French Institute as a typist.

I loved him, he didn't love me.

I was stuck in a horrible hotel, almost starving.

He came to see me now and again.

When I told him I was pregnant, he became crazy and mean.

Finally he agreed to recognize the child if we agreed to leave Greece.

We both disappeared, the child and I.

I was repatriated. - And him?

He's not dead. He didn't even fight.

I never heard from him again.

My daughter is called Candas, since that's his name, but it's a lie.

That way she can dream about her father's house, on the hill.

Facing the sea, the rising sun, the house I invented.

It is better for your daughter. - Maybe before, when she was young.

but now I'm scared to death she'll go to Greece,

looking for his family, her father's grave.

I understand. Thank you for your trust but...

I know you have to go, that's why.. - I'm sorry.

It's you, I thought you had a key.

I do. How are you? - Fine and you?

Fine, like a man who hardly slept on the train. - I've made a mess in your room.

My room? I'm not here to sleep. I just want to drop off my suitcase.

Take a seat.

So many books, you're working?

I'm writing a presentation on Corinth and Mycenae for the tourists.

If you want, I'd like to read it to you.

You'll visit with me and tell me what's wrong.

With great pleasure, just give me time to wash my hands.

I'm sorry, I'll make some coffee.

A hero of the Greek revolution.

A warrior? - That I made in 1954.

It wasn't a commission, more like a suggestion,

a vague order.

For his home village. It's called Little George Of Olympus.

He's tall.

He didn't like it, he wanted something else.

He wanted the usual hero.

With well-dressed hair and shiny buttons.

The bourgeois type. Those guys weren't at all bourgeois.

They were just guys fed up with the Turkish occupation and took up...

took up arms, conducted the 1821 uprising.

They were guys like that.

These people can only be represented by Greek popular songs.

Songs which are really wild, it's no Tango.

He committed suicide in a Romanian monastery.

He took his life by setting fire to powder.

At this time, the Greeks were free.

And this freedom they wanted to show they had it.

I think it's the characteristic, the most... the most important

if one judges the Greeks.

On the little hill, you can see the temple of Apollo,

which overhangs the gulf. One of the oldest Doric temples

Normally there's a beautiful view, is that right?

Yes.

From Corinth we go to Mycenae, founded by Perseus and the cyclops.

We call these walls cyclopean,

here, protecting the royal palace.

The lion gate, this one here...

The lion gate, lionesses by the way, face to face,

could be the symbol of the royal family.

From the age of 8, Schliemann wanted to discover Troy.

He left for America to make his fortune.

Then he went to Greece with his wife to make some personal excavations.

Schliemann found the faces of several skeletons covered in gold leaf masks.

Vases and jewels worn immediately by his wife Sophie.

And sherds of very unusual painted pottery.

This long Mycenaean era, 1500 to 1100 BC,

was ended by an invasion of barbarians from the north.

It is only in the 9th century BC that Homer sang of the war of Troy

and the long return of Ulysses.

In Mycenae, the landscape, the ruins, are still tainted with this

unfulfilled hatred of the Atreides.

The tragic stories of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and Electra

are very much understandable there.

The madness, the horror, the bloodshed...

from over thirty centuries ago, that really moves me.

I was also moved by Antigone.

I thought I understood the museum's mystery.

I thought that sleeping in a sailor's shirt was the Big Adventure.

That the sphinx would be a young man.

And that blind Destiny would dazzle me with its blows.

Michel is back! What a surprise.

We didn't expect you back today. - Did you see a lot of people, places?

People, places, down south.

My mother leaves in the south, in Beaucaire. If only I'd known.

I went through Beaucaire, is that where she is?

Yes she's a secretary in a factory, she so bored it's such a small town.

Excuse me, I have to go. I'll leave my case. See you soon.

I also liked J.S. Bach and I hated cleaning.

But I used to love Apollo and Apollinaire.

The Odysseus was my bible and my leaders the surrealists.

I wanted to be tragic to be Greek and scandalous to be young.

I didn't know how to become a woman.

I was reading the poems of Gis�le Prassinos and I was afraid.

I wrote my first poem at 14,

actually maybe younger.

I remember the exact day it happened.

It was summer, it was very hot.

I was alone, not knowing what to do.

So I took a postcard

and then I started writing nonsense,

absolute nonsense, one word after another.

I stopped and left the postcard on the table.

And my brother who was 4 years older than me

and already interested in the surrealist movement,

took the card and showed it to Andr� Breton

and that's how Breton, Eluard Perret, Char and all the surrealists

started to be interested with my work.

At first, they didn't believe I was the writer,

so they organized a verification.

I was put in a room, in front of a table

with a pencil and paper. Now go and write.

I wrote 3 or 4 texts.

It was always horrible things.

I loved to scare myself. And at that time...

my brother Mario used to paint

livers, bleeding heart. I think he was

influenced by Dali.

I was thrilled by the surrealists.

I was dazzled by their insolence, their disputes,

their humor, their invention.

YOU WHO DON'T SEE think of those who do

PARENTS! tell your dreams to your children

MAD LOVE

Beauty will be convulsive or it will not be.

Convulsive beauty will be erotic, veiled, explosive,

fixed, magical, circumstantial or it will not be.

It was 46-47. Civil war in Greece, post-war in France.

Paris was very dirty, not yet cleaned.

I was going to La Sorbonne to listen to Gaston Bachelard.

I was hanging round the Latin quarter.

I'm going to be traveling again. - Travel shapes the young.

Don't make fun of me.

Here we are.

Here's where all the politicized Greeks meet.

I'd stay but I wouldn't understand.

I'll go to the movies or the library. - See you tomorrow.

I knew nothing about politics. Art was my sole concern, my sole aim.

As for love, that would come later.

I was 17 and starting university.

I was behind, having a hard time to keep up.

I was attending a course about The Young Fate by Paul Valery, annotated by Alain.

It was dealing with simple images leading to abstract forms.

He read:

What mortal woman, knowing death, could stand

Against these tides?

He said:

It's a young girl listening to a tennis match around her

and hearing in herself the turmoil of her virginity.

Envious of white forms meeting each another

Hooked to each other and falling

Feel the nails scratching your skin and flee

while flying around the lamp

I have a rooster in my guts, its voice waxes and wanes with delight

till it touches the heart of my heart

A woman on her balcony watches the sky,

the wind in her hair and her hands trying to control it.

There she stayed, not even moving once, awaiting the night.

When night fell, and with it no more wind,

the woman lowered her hands letting them fall alongside her body.

The shock made her open vertically with a great noise.

Then two hearts stuck together

escaped with great loss of blood, which spilled out onto the terrace.

Soon the form was moving faster, taking shape with greater energy.

The man felt a slight uncomfortable warmth approaching him and shortly after

a burst of nervous energy struck him forcefully on his chest.

The Greek sun, the father, the hero, the lover...

made a whole for Agnes. A whole, first man.

Is it still mythology or already reality?

Are you cold?

No. Rather like a tree after the hurricane,

a thousand little leaves trembling

and some words impossible to say, which tremble.

Are you trembling. I'm trembling too.

MICHEL: Remember Nausicaa? That's it, that's you

The one we dream of, the virgin with white arms.

The temptation to stop at Nausicaa's. It's you.

AGNES: But you won't stop, I don't want you to.

Your journey isn't over, Ulysses's long return.

If you have to leave, leave me tonight.

It's daylight already.

Are you sleepy?

I don't want to sleep. I don't want to sleep as you leave.

Really?

AGNES: Leave me tonight please.

MICHEL: Before the dawn? Rosy fingered dawn?

AGNES : Grant me that favor which is that of the gods.

MICHEL: You also speak of the Odyssey.

AGNES: I know what awaits you. The long journey, exile, the real Odyssey.

I'm not dreaming. Just thinking of you.

You've nothing to say?

Are you angry with me? - No, no.

I'm just leaving you very slowly, that's all.

I'll go pack my case...

if that's what you want?

Yes, that's it.

That's selfish? - No...

No, it's normal. It's better this way. Better.

I've traveled since '68. I travel.

When crossing European capitals,

it feels like crossing Athens before the coup.

Everyone has the same unconsciousness that we had.

The armored cars could already be at the airports of your towns.

It's for political reasons that I wrote a book

and they want me to play the marketing game.

I am an author who was tortured.

And people are forgetting why I was.

Forgetting that torture is practical in the name of abstract democracy,

in the name of abstract freedom

and in the name of concrete anti-communism.

Greek fascism must be fought,

in destroying the mechanism creating European fascism.

It is the only help us Greeks believe in.

It is the only help us Greeks believe in.

It is the only help us Greeks believe in.

All the rest, literature of exile,

exportation heroism and international solidarity...

All the rest is just cinema.

Subtitles: alexkid, guezou, dasZim, corvusalbus