A filmmaker looks to his family's history as the basis for a historical epic that reflects some of the most tumultuous events of the 20th Century in this grand-scale drama from Theo Angelopoulos. A. (Willem Dafoe) is a director struggling to complete shooting on his latest project, a sweeping historical story being shot in Berlin that tells the true story of his parent's relationship. Spyros (Michel Piccoli) and Eleni (Irene Jacob) first met and fell in love shortly before World War II broke out, but the two were separated during the fighting, with Spyros making his way to America and settling in New York, while civil war forced Eleni to seek exile in Russia. Stalin established a colony for Greek expatriates in Tashkent, where Eleni joined her fellow expatriates, and when Spyros learned of her whereabouts after Stalin's passing, he left New York to be with her, entering Tashkent illegally via Germany. However, after a brief reunion which led to Eleni becoming pregnant, Spyros was found out by the authorities. After Spyros was arrested, Eleni was sent to Siberia, where she met Jacob (Bruno Ganz), a German Jew. Jacob fell in love with Eleni and he stayed by her side as she wrestled with he memory of Spyros and her son, who with Jacob's help was smuggled out of Tashkent to Canada and eventually reunited with his father. It's not until years later that A. is finally reunited with his parents (as well as Jacob) in Berlin as he tries to put their story on film, but what should be a happy time becomes potentially tragic as A.'s daughter falls into a deep depression and threatens to take her life. I Skoni Tou Chronou (aka The Dust Of Time) was an official selection at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival.
by Mark Deming
synopsis
