This is an excellent film, political and well crafted, concerning a crucial time in modern Greek history, the post-Civil War era and the intrusive US presence in the political life of Greece. Granted, the communist threat was still ever-present in the Greek psyche but the US Ambassador and the Pentagon's presence in Greek political life, and the influence the US Embassy wielded on the government and the Palace is well handled. The acting is controlled and not excessive as is usual in Greek films and except for the opening vignettes of police actions against the Greek leftists and their suffering on the prison IsIand (perhaps Makronissos) is convincing.
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doulist26 September 2006
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Vlasios_Tzomos7 September 2015This movie is about Nikos Belogiannis, the fighter of the Greek Communist Party, with the disarming smile and the carnation on his lapel. After the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), Belogiannis returned to Greece, got arrested and sentenced to death for his political beliefs and actions. Charles De Gaulle, Pablo Picasso, Charlie Chaplin, Jean Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Nazim Hikmet and many others, intellectual persons and artists from all over the world are sending telegrams to the Greek government demanding the cancellation of the sentence. The famous Italian actor Gian Maria Volonte was about to play the role of Belogiannis but due to health reasons he passed the role. Then the director Nikos Tzimas, asked Foivos Gikopoulos to play the role. Gikopoulos had no acting experience. Tzimas had asked him before to translate the scenario in Italian for Volonte, when he noticed Gikopoulos resemblance to Belogiannis. The critics wrote good reviews for Gikopoulos performance but this was only a foray in cinema business for him. He is now a dean at the Aristoteleio University of Thessaloniki teaching Italian literature. The movie is famous for the Greek all star cast including actors like Katrakis, Kazakos, Alexandrakis, Ypsilanti, Fyssoun, Antonopoulos and many others. The famous composer Mickis Theodorakis wrote the music of the film. The director Nikos Tzimas won the Special Diploma at the Moscow Film Festival for this movie.
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tfonias7429 December 2020The movie deals with the last years of Belogannis life, his trial and execution. It is a shameful part of my country's history that people pretend never happened. The Civil War and the years after are conviniently ignored in the history books. Unfortunately little seems to have changed since then (regarding foreign powers dictating policy) in this country. This movie is flawed on a technical level but strong on the story and performances.
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papachristopoulos_l10 July 2007The movie shows the real situation in Greece between 1949-1974. Belogiannis died in the early 50s but the situation stayed unchanged since 1974. I believe that this movie is a tribute to the democratic beliefs. Anyone who loves democracy and a better world without political parties and without political discriminations must see it. It is one of the best political movies I have ever seen and one of the best Greek movies ever. The watcher must know some thing on Greek history in order to follow the story, but for those who aren't experts isn't a problem. Theu will understand immediately that Greece suffered a lot from this war.The film is old but it is worth to watch it because it stays classic. The music composer of the film is Mikis Theodorakis who has connected his name with the freedom of this nation.
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Nikos Beloyannis was one of the TOP HEROES of the Greek Left Wing, HERO of the Greek Resistance against the Nazis, who gave with smile his life for the next generations live with pride, honor and freedom.
As his incredible speech in the court, he marked with his words that him and the others were not "traitors" of Greece; they simply had DIFFERENT political ideas, the "Red" ideas, which in that period (early of 50's) were No1 ENEMY of USA and the rest Western governments.
It was truly a WRONG and UNFAIR, with NO JUSTICE at all trial. The Right Wing was super powerful in Greece in early of '50s and in fact, just a decade afterwards the Greek Right Wing & the Army made a COUP & eventually DICTATORSHIP for 7 long dark years!
A very emotional film, very good portraiting the notorious NIKOS BELOYANNIS, one of the Greek people's heroes.