Feature film
The Engagement
Τ' αρραβωνιάσματα
Maria Plyta · 1950
Synopsis
On an island of fishermen, the young Dimitros, son of Vangelis and Lemonia Lempesis, loves Tzevi, an orphan, and wants to marry her. But Roupis, a miserly landowner who would like Dimitros as a son-in-law and intends him for his daughter Krinio, spreads a rumour across the island: the two young people are supposedly in fact brother and sister. The talk reaches the village houses, and everyone must say what they know of the past.
Context
The film adapts the drama by Dimítris Bógris first staged in 1925, one of the most performed plays of the Greek repertoire, with Emílios Veákis, Ntínos Iliópoulos and Dímos Starénios. Begun in 1948 and delayed by a series of mishaps, it was released in February 1950, produced by the Nóvak company and shot on Salamis, with sets and costumes by Yánnis Tsaroúchis. Its director, credited under the name María Chatzinákou, later said that these adaptations of Greek authors, which she produced, had left her heavily in debt.
Who it is for
A black-and-white melodrama, in Greek, rarely shown outside archive screenings and retrospectives devoted to its director.
Prizes and reception
The first Greek feature film directed by a woman, it was also a popular success, with some sixty thousand admissions in its season.
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