To meteoro vima tou pelargou (1991)

A reporter stuck in a border town with an overcrowding of refugees sees a man he believes to be a long lost politician.

Director:

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Writers:

Theodoros Angelopoulos (idea), Theodoros Angelopoulos

Stars:

Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Gregory Patrick Karr

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marcello Mastroianni	...	Missing Politician
Jeanne Moreau	...	The Woman
Gregory Patrick Karr	...	Alexandre the Reporter (as Gregory Karr)
Ilias Logothetis	...	Colonel
Dora Hrisikou	...	The Girl
Vasilis Bouyiouklakis	...	Production Manager
Dimitris Poulikakos	...	Chief Photographer
Gerasimos Skiadaressis	...	Waiter
Tasos Apostolou	...	Perchman
Akis Sakellariou	...	Sound Operator
Athinodoros Prousalis	...	Hotel-keeper
Mihalis Giannatos	...	Shopkeeper
Christoforos Nezer	...	Parliament's President
Yilmaz Hassan	...	Hanged Man
Benjamin Ritter	...	Sound Operator

Storyline

Alexandre, a TV reporter, is working for a few days in a border town, where a lot of refugees from Albania, Turkey and Kurdistan are packed in. Among them, he notices an old man and thinks he is an important Greek politician who disappeared mysteriously a few years ago. Back in Athens, he asks this politician's former wife to come and identify him. A slow and dry meditation about inhumanity of borders.

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Plot Keywords:

border | politician | refugee | part of trilogy | animal in title | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

France Greece Switzerland Italy

Language:

French English Greek

Release Date:

4 December 1991 (France)

Also Known As:

Le pas suspendu de la cigogne

Filming Locations:

Florina, Macedonia, Greece

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arena Films,Theo Angelopoulos Films,Greek Film Center

Technical Specs

Runtime:

143 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Dora Hrisikou.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Alexandre the Reporter: Travelling on an assignment to the frontier, I kept thinking about the incident at the Pireas. Bodies of Asian refugess in the sea, after Greek authorities refused to grant them political asylum. Their determination to jump to their deaths, from a Greek ship, in the open seas after they had been diiscovered, while crossing the Pacific... How does one leave? Why? Where to? Is it like in that old poem? "And don't forget that the time to leave has come. The wind will carry your eyes ...

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Connections

Referenced in Yperoha plasmata: Sta gipeda i Ellada anastenazei (2007)

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Soundtracks

Silent Night
Written by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr

User Reviews

die die my darling

This was my first, and probably the last Angelopoulos movie. I was eager to get into it, as it featured Mastroianni, one of my favorite actors and was a film By Theo, of whom I've heard a lot. The opening was promising, a long shot over a jeep of soldiers across the Albanian-Greek border. OK! but that was all. Nothing left. The movie had big holes and I don't know which to mention first. The main plot of the story is revealed to the journalist by the old woman. during a long walk. It's like a 15 minutes monologue, killing the action and viewers patience, nothing happening on screen for 15 or even 20 minutes, apart this old lady telling a story. All that is presumed to be shown through action, was simply told to the camera by the old lady. In a moment, the equippe of TV was heading to the bar. They turn the corner and immediately the winter begins! Probably, shot in different days, continuity leaked. A lot of problems with the story-telling, it went from absurd to irrational never sticking to a style, making the viewer asking questions that never got answers. Poor Mastroianni, given a role which lacked integrity or charm. On the other hand, as many Greeks or Albanians or Balcan people would agree with, the movies showed lot of historic, ethnic, or politically incorrectness, just for the sake of making a movie about "humanity" as a red in another review. A lot more to say, but no time to lose on a poor movie, which was not movie at all, but lunacies of a person impressed on film and paid with state money.