SCREENING OF THEO ANGELOPOULOS’S FILM "THE TRAVELLING PLAYERS"
Theo Angelopoulos’s landmark film The Travelling Players was screened on Thursday, November 8, at the Olympion Theater, in the context of the 53rd Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which is hosting a special tribute to the renowned filmmaker.
Eva Kotamanidou, who stars in the film and attended the screening, talked to the audience about the backstage of the shoot. “The film was shot under difficult circumstances. Filming started during the autumn of 1973, when [Angelopoulos] shot the first scene at the central square of the city of Karditsa. This coincided with the Athens Polytechnic uprising, and subsequently everyone went into hiding. This marked the begininning of the junta’s cruelest period under Ioannides...”. Ms Kotamanidou said that the silver lining was that the script had already gotten the green light by the censors of the regime. “Of course we had not submitted the original script, just a fake one about a troupe of actors roaming Greece and staging the play “Golfo”. They failed to notice that the family of the actors had names from the House Atreides”, she added.
Filming was suspended for a while and resumed in early 1974. Ms. Kotamanidou recalled that the film had to overcome many hardships, both financial and weather related, because Theo Angelopoulos loved shooting in the winter, but “spring had arrived by then and the scenery was all green”. Filming was concluded eventually in the end of 1975 and the film was screened shortly after at the Cannes Film Festival. “Unfortunately, this was not Greece’s oficial entry and was therefore screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section. The film took the audience by storm and won the International Film Critics (FIPRESCI) award. It then became widely known in Europe and the entire world. In the early 1980s it was included among the 10 greatest movies of all time and currently ranks in the the top 100”, said. Ms. Kotamanidou.
The tribute to Theo Angelopoulos includes the screening of three landmark films of the director, as well as a concert by composer Eleni Karaindrou, titled “Music and songs for the films of Theo Angelopoulos”, which will take place on Friday, November 9 at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, featuring performances by singer Dimitra Galani and the jazz trio “Human Touch” (David Lynch, Stavros Lantsias and Giotis Kiortsoglou). The event is co-organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival and the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra. The tribute also includes a comprehensive, bilingual publication covering the full body of work of the director.
The tribute to Theo Angelopoulos is one of the Festival’s actions financed by the European Union’s Regional DEvelopment Fund for Central Macedonia, 2007-2013.
