Feature film
The Travelling Players
Ο θίασος
Theo Angelopoulos · 1975
Synopsis
From 1939 to 1952, a travelling troupe tours Greece to perform Golfo the Shepherdess, a pastoral drama that it never manages to carry through to the end. The Metaxas dictatorship, the war with Italy, the Occupation, the Liberation and the civil war interrupt the performances one after another, and the relationships among the actors, modelled on those of the Atreidae, take shape to the rhythm of the country's history.
Context
The play performed by the troupe, written by Spyrídon Peresiádis in 1893, serves as the thread; its performers take over the roles of the Oresteia, so that two stories advance together. The film was shot under the dictatorship of the colonels, on a front script submitted to the censors, and was released only after its fall; the government that followed refused to put it forward in competition at Cannes, where it was nevertheless shown on 12 May 1975. Released in Greece in October, it was a great popular success there. Giórgos Arvanítis operated the camera.
Who it is for
Nearly four hours, in Greek; the periods sometimes change within a single shot, without warning, and demand attention.
Prizes and reception
International Critics' Prize at Cannes in 1975, it won the main awards of the Thessaloniki festival the same year.
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