Voyage to Cythera

Angelopoulos's most personal film, and it is about exile. A director is looking for an old man to play the lead in a film about his own life. Then the narrative slips and an old man actually appears: Spyros, who fought on the left in the Greek civil war, spent thirty-two years exiled in the Soviet Union, and is now returning. But return is not possible. His wife has aged, his children do not know him, the land in his village is about to be sold for tourism, and the state will not recognise his citizenship. He is neither here nor there; he becomes a man no country will accept. The closing is among Angelopoulos's best-known images: a raft in the middle of the sea, tied to no shore and unable to go anywhere. Cythera in the title is the island of love in Greek myth; in the film it is the place never reached. Manos Katrakis plays Spyros. It won Best Screenplay and the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes in 1984. An important work for viewers interested in Greek history and slow cinema. For anyone wanting a fast narrative it runs close to three hours with almost no incident.