America America

A young Greek named Stavros in 1890s Anatolia has one idea: to get to America. His family gives him everything they own and sends him to Constantinople. He is robbed on the way, works as a labourer in the city, is pushed into a marriage, steals, and comes close to losing his humanity. The road until he boards the ship is the whole film. Elia Kazan wrote, produced and directed. The story is from his own family: his uncle Joe Kazantzoglou, who set out from Anatolia in 1896 and reached America. Kazan wrote the screenplay first, turned it into a novel published in 1962, then turned it back into a script. The plan was to shoot in Turkey, but Kazan managed only four days in Istanbul. Turkish censors bugged his hotel room and would not let him film anything except palaces and mosques. Most of the picture was made in Greece as a result. The trouble did not end there. Shooting had already begun in Greece when the producer Ray Stark withdrew, and Kazan had to wait until Warner Bros put up the money. Who it is for: viewers who want immigration stories and Kazan's most personal work. Who it is not for: anyone looking for something short. It runs close to three hours and the structure is repetitive by design, because what it is about is the road itself.