AllMovie

Born in Thrace in 1849 and dying in a mental institution in Athens in 1896, Georgios Vizyenos was famed short story writer who wrote The Only Journey of His Life, considered a masterpiece of modern Greek literature. Noted documentary filmmaker Lakis Papastathis directs this complex account of his enigmatic historical figure. The film opens with Vizyenos being admitted to the asylum, after being driven mad by an obsession he had for a beautiful twelve-year old girl named Bettina. Real life and his stories soon become conflated in the author's mind. He remember his childhood in Constantinople and in Thrace, confusing it with that of his grandfather who was forced to dress as a girl for the first ten years of his life to avoid being kidnapped by the Turks. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.