Chrissomaloussa (1979)

Run Time - 98 min.  |   Countries - Greece  |  
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Synopsis by Robert Firsching

Greece's official entry in the 1979 Cannes Film Festival's Director's Fortnight, this story of social unrest in an island village was directed and co-written by Tonis Lykouressis. Antonis Katsaris stars as a teacher in the small village of Zante who fights the growing desire of many locals to abandon the village for the big city or other countries. He works hard to organize traditional cultural events, such as outdoor performances of the traditional play I Chrissomalloussa, in order to solidify local values and a sense of identity. The teacher is aided by a young woman (Vera Krouska), a widow who has just returned from Germany and lives with her father-in-law (Vangelis Kazan). Kazan walks away with the film, as his sinister desires for his daughter-in-law are inflamed when he sees that she has fallen in love with the teacher. These developments lead him to whip up protests against the play by conservative locals, claiming that the teacher has changed the traditional story by adding elements of propaganda with the potential of causing peasant uprisings. The result is an unexpectedly violent example of social censorship. Thanos Veloudios co-stars with Nikos Alevras and Nikos Tsouchlos.

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Keywords

country-life, cross-cultural-relations, death, expatriate, extramarital-affair, schoolteacher, spouse, widow/widower