Theo Angelopoulos: The Weeping Meadow

"You cannot step twice in the same river." - Heraclitus

Director/Writer - Theo Angelopoulos

Cinematographer - Andreas Sinanos

Cast Character
Alexandra Aidini .... Eleni
Nikos Poursanidis .... Mihalis
Giorgos Armenis .... Nikos
Vassilis Kolovos .... Spyros
Eva Kotomanidou ..... Kassandra

Theo Angelopoulos, Greece's most acclaimed director, shows the human soul through the environment and the zooms within long shots patient to reveal and are never forced. Like Terrence Malick he uses the environment sublimely to react to his characters and show their innermost character. He is concerned with the family and the identity they must adopt in order to come to a new land. His films are poetic in dialogue and in the way they unfold. They are epic like a Greek tragedy heavily entranced with the belief in fate. Watching one is a spectacle in sheer craftsmanship and cohesiveness.

The film opens opens with a narrator explaining these refugees coming from Odessa to Thessaloniki because the Red Army forced them out. It is a long take done in one shot to show the effort these people made from one land to another. Time and effort are what is represented in this shot. Likewise the language in the film is deliberate, meditative and poetic as seen in The Thin Red Line. These immigrants come in tattered and worn with just suitcases and clothes on their backs. Their reflections are shown in the water showing they will be watered down versions of their previous selves.

As the Bolshevik revolution spread everywhere Eleni returns to the village. Mihalis sees her again when they were separated. After he deflowers her, we get a close up of her white dress and curtains which hint at her perceived innocence with her crying after showing it is broken.

Eleni runs away from Spyros who took care of her at a young age. She was supposed to marry him but left at the last minute. The woman who takes care of Eleni compares her to the Holy Virgin - pure, innocent and without sin. Although the wedding is consummated she runs off knowing what has happened is sacrilegious. The shots in the film are slow and gradual - ones that build tension and dive deep into the feelings of the characters. We see their faces which are imprinted on the viewer like how Ingmar Bergman does especially seen in Cries and Whispers.

Mihalis takes Eleni from the river. When Spyros sees Eleni's torn dress on the water he falls to the ground in grief because he knows her innocence is gone. Musicians take in Eleni and Mihalis which is fitting due to their sad way of playing which is reflected throughout the film. Mihalis plays the accordion which offers the mood throughout their bleakness.


Nikos takes them to his theatre offering them a place to stay and salvation of sorts in order to hide them from Spyros. When Spyros comes he is a site to behold. He inhabits the room with dread and longing like nothing ever seen before. he calls out to Eleni in the theatre where both Eleni and Mihalis are hiding. He claims it is his wife but he shames himself by lusting after a woman so young. The backtracking shot of him in the abandoned, torn theatre with people watching him in the balconies is powerful. His longings for her are inappropriate but his sorrow is very real.

Nikos takes Mihalis to an abandoned building to which he hears music. The camera moves back making the room seem bigger - the world is opening up for him - his opportunities are expanding. He finds other musicians who can realize his dream.

As the story progresses Mihalis yearns for America. The love scene between Mihalis and Eleni is interesting because it is in total darkness showing their love as private and completely intimate. He reveals he sold his mother's ring to pay for her clothes - so she wouldn't wear rags anymore.

Trying to assemble an orchestra, Nikos offers a job to Mihalis but he fears being found by Spyros. The next scene opens with a landscape of white sheets drying outside symbolizing defeat of all of the musicians. Mihalis steps into frame to reiterate this feeling. It is also a sense of rebirth of new opportunity as he yearns to work and play music in America.

Mihalis gets his big break when Spyros tells him the famous Markos wants to hear him play. He tells Mihalis he hasn't heard such music in such a long time and the opportunity is his. The movie is focused on survival of Greece from the Red Army and the survival of its inhabitants particularly Mihalis and Eleni. Mihalis catches the opportunity of a lifetime when Spyros and Markos say he is invited to America to play for the Greeks there.

The sea is used as a transitional plane and a symbol of strength in Mihalis's opportunity. It is no surprise then that scene where many men dance with Eleni is by the sea as well. The film is unique in that the two protagonists, Eleni and Mihalis, don't age. We are introduced to their two twin sons who are about 10 each. They are introduced by the ocean where they want to play. They are hesitant near their parents but take comfort near the water. This is the foreshadowing and desire of both Eleni and Mihalis to make it abroad. They also wear sailor clothes to reemphasize this.

The musicians and citizens form a protest against their fascist government. They play songs in the beer hall as a celebration and refuge for one another. Spyros comes and asks to dance with Elenis to which she agrees and Mihalis obliges by playing the accordion without protest. The camera dollies back giving the old couple space for some bittersweet nostalgia. Eleni's black charade mask is her pain in the forefront. She steps back to reject him again. With great shock Spyros moves out of the room and dies.

Mihalis and Eleni come back to their home to find a their father' sheep all hung dead from a barren tree. This is a warning from the townspeople of how they will be treated from now on. Perhaps it has some meaning in Greek mythology. Soon people begin throwing rocks at their windows. The children in this film serve no other purpose beyond that of foils - to reveal the true nature of Mihalis and Eleni.

A flood comes and causes everyone to pack and leave. When they do leave they stand on the boat similar to the funeral procession that happened earlier on the boats. There is a good shot of a boy dressed in white on the porch alone while it is flooded outside. Three people dressed in black pass him by on a boat showing the death of hope. This is these people's lives for now on migrating from one place to another.

A great scene of a return to innocence for Eleni and Mihalis is when they fatefully walk to the white sheets again. They hear music and see one by one musicians playing - a sign that all is not lost. The musicians return to the sea and play for Mihalis and Eleni - a sign to go to America and become musicians.

When the couple reach the port and cannot board the boat for being late Eleni wants to give Mihalis a sweater. She apologizes for it not being finished so Mihalis pulls the string to make it come undone - his dreams are finished. He experiences humiliation in Ellis Island and plays for some small insignificant bands. He cannot believe he is so unlucky and that is is the real America.

As Eleni finds her dead son who was in the army she is now so lost with nobody left to love after everyone including Mihalis has died.

"Every blade of grass held little drops of dew that fell ever so often on the soft earth. This meadow is the source of the river."

Pain will turn to prosperity.