Word: greekness
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...film opens, Chrysanthou travels to the U.N. controlled buffer zone lying along the so-called Green Line which divides Cyprus into Greek and Turkish sectors Chrysanthou a film-maker and intellectual, is going to meet Kizilyurek, a boyhood friend who is now an editor of Turkish Cypriot literature and a political scientist associated with the University of Bremen. During his meeting with Chrysanthou Kizilyurek relates the difficulties that he encountered when customs officials discovered he carried three passports. The anecdote is a great symbol for the problematic nature of Cypriot identity...
...Wall" is at its best when it focuses on the stories and experiences of the everyday people of Cyprus. The film first introduces Hassan, a Turkish shepherd married to Habou, a Greek woman. Hassan bears witness to the harshness of a shepherd's existence, a life lived without modern conveniences, which he blames on the partition of Cyprus. Because he was married to a Greek, he underwent all manner of difficulties and dangers, including the time when he was threatened with prison because his wife's Greek relatives visited his house. There were several occasions when he almost...
Yasin conducts interviews with Turkish and Greek women. This section of the film is the most wrenching. The encounters with Hassan and Kizilyurek's charming aunt leave one unprepared for the intensity and impact of the interviews in this section. Particularly harrowing is a Greek woman's description of abuse by Turkish soldiers. She describes women being raped, and men killed. The memories are so vivid and so traumatic that she breaks down and tells the camera that she cannot continue. The camera pans to Yasin who is herself overcome and crying against the wall. This lacerating moment indicts cruelty...
...film brings new meaning to the expression, "man with a Godcomplex." The story is inspired in part by the Greek legend of Amphitryon, whose body Zeus inhabited to seduce Amphitryon's wife. In the Godard version, God, a presence with a terrifying, gravelly voice straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, decides to manifest Himself in the guise of ordinary Simon Donnadieu, played by ubiquitous French film star Gerard Depardieu. (Donnadieu means "given to God," and Depardieu means "on behalf of God," Get it?). Simon starts using "thine" and "thou" in conversation, much to the astonishment of his wife, Rachel...
...from a George Burns-style "Oh God!" flick. Instead, it uses Simon's transformation into God as a springboard for an examination of the heavy topics of faith and love. The townspeople in the idyllic Swiss village where the film is set act as a Greek chorus, offering commentary on the Donnadieus' story and the issues that arise from it. The film is full of tableaux of talking heads filmed against lush backdrops, uttering French-film fortune-cookie phrases like "Love equals prayer. Wrapping one's arm around someone, and clasping hands, is like praying," or "Resign one's self...