O thiasos (1975)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Writer:

Theodoros Angelopoulos (writer)

Release Date:

7 November 2003 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

Greece 1939 - 1952 Fascist, Nazi, Communist conflict as seen through a family of travelling provincial players

Plot Keywords:

Betrayal | Dictatorship | Civil War | Resistance | Brechtian Theatre

Awards:

10 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Eva Kotamanidou	...	Elektra
Aliki Georgouli	...	Elektra's Mother
Vangelis Kazan	...	Spy
Stratos Pahis	...	Elektra's Father
Maria Vassiliou	...	Chrysothemis
Petros Zarkadis	...	Orests
Kiriakos Katrivanos	...	Pyladis
Giannis Fyrios	...	Musician
Nina Papazaphiropoulou	...	Old Woman
Alekos Boubis	...	Old Man
Grigoris Evangelatos	...	Poet
Giorgos Tzifos
Kosta Stiliaris	...	Commandant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Takis Doukatos		(as T. Doukakos)
Thanos Grammenos
Ketty Grigoratou
Dimitris Kaberidis
Danis Katranidis
Panos Kokkinopoulos
Giorgos Koutiris		(as G. Koutiris)
Stelios Lionakis
Kostas Mandilas
Giorgos Mazis
Costas Messaris
Christoforos Nezer
Iakovos Pairidis
Vasilis Tsaglos
Giorgos Verlis

Also Known As:

Θίασος, Ο (Greece)
The Travelling Players

Runtime:

230 min

Country:

Greece

Language:

Greek

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:X

Company:

Papalios Productions

Quotes:

Elektra's Father: [before he is executed by the Germans] I came cross the sea, from Ionia. Where did you come from?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in I alli skini (1975)

Travelling Players

"The Travelling Players", one of the early films of Theo Angelopoulos, shows the vast difference between the talented rising director of 1975 that had something to say, and of the bourgeois famous director of 1998 ("Eternity And A Day") that won the Cannes award but had nothing left to say.

A sprawling epic running at around 4 hours, the film follows a group of touring actors performing a theatrical play across Greece between 1939 and 1952. The focus is on the troubled modern history of Greece during the period (a fascist dictatorship, resistance against the Italians, German occupation, civil war), seen through a series of warped desolate sequences drenched in languor, and also an apotheosis of traditional folklore, music, theater, rural and urban landscapes. Most of these scenes exhibit a rare poetical sensibility, while a few are a bit clumsy, but still interesting.

Couple that with the drama that unfolds within the group of players, and you've got a true masterpiece. Basically what we see is a loose adaptation of Aeschylus' ancient tragedy "Oresteia" (the father Agamemnon, the adulterous mother Clytamnestra, her lover Aegisthus, the avenging daughter Elektra, the avenging son Orestes etc). In the end, the group of actors stands severely rearranged through a painful and dividing historical period, shadows of themselves in a shadow of a country. The film ends as a perfect circle just the way it began, a metaphor for life itself.