VOYAGE TO CYTHERA
by, Theo Angelopoulos
Alexandros!
Keep your head down!
Got you, Alexandros!
Got you, Eleni!
Got you, Alexandros!
Got you, Eleni!
Got you, Alexandros!
Got you, Eleni!
Got you, Alexandros! Got you, Eleni!
Spyro!
Good morning.
Madam asks if you want anything else.
Spyro!
It's me...
Do I wait for your signal?
It's me...
Good morning.
I often discover, with horror and relief...
that I no longer believe in anything...
At such times, I turn back to my body...
It's the only thing that reminds me I'm alive...
Is that all?
That's all.
We only seem to meet at work, these days...
Is it your wife?
No.
What am I to do with this?
Much too big.
Tell Giorgos to change it.
A large coffee, black.
Lavender?
Waiter
Lemon tea, please...
Will you pick me up at the theatre tonight?
Alexandros!
Always late...
You haven't changed.
This ship's coming in.
We'll just make it.
I called the committee...
for the Repatriation of Civil War Exiles.
I wanted to make sure he's coming.
Do you remember what he looks like?
I didn't know he played the violin.
I expected him to be taller.
Do you know something?
He may be our father, but after 32 years...
it doesn't mean much, does it?
Why should we keep running after a shadow?
It's me!
I am Alexandros!
And I am Voula.
Nico couldn't come. He's abroad.
Mother's waiting at home.
At home?
Aren't we going to kiss each other?
Here we are.
What's the matter?
I'm afraid.
She's waiting for you.
What's the color of her eyes?
Did you eat?
Welcome home, Spyro!
Thank you.
You must be Elias' sister...
That's right!
And you must be...
Costa's son!
How are you, my boy?
You can't expect him to remember...
So many years ago.
A lifetime.
You must have lots of strange stories to tell.
Russia is a big place.
It snows a lot in the winter.
Katerina!
Voula, the soups's ready.
Coming.
Wine! Where's the wine?
I'll bring it.
Mother, what happened?
Mother, open up!
Mother.
For God's sake... why?
Spyro, where are you going?
You've been here before, haven't you?
The two of you?
What did you tell her back home?
What happened? I don't understand.
She's lived with the dream of your return...
Tomorrow we leave for the village, as you wanted.
The Salonica express.
Will you be all right here?
I'll manage. Don't wait.
Run along.
Good night.
That's the old outlaw code isn't it?
You remember, Mother?
As if I could forget.
That's Panayotis.
What are they saying?
He's asking who's there.
Hey, Argos!
Hello there, Giorgos!
Hello there, Leni!
Hello there, Dimitri!
They're coming.
You know, Spyro?
They haven't set foot here for 15 years.
Life is easier down in the valley.
They've come to sell out whatever's left.
They'd sell the sky if they could.
Forty red apples, my love, wrapped in a kerchief...
Forty red apples, my love... wrapped in a kerchief...
It's been several years but I never told you...
Katerina... I like you
Ever since we were young lads... Always...
Forty red apples, my love... wrapped in a kerchief...
Ah, Father!
The women are waiting for you to open the house.
A rotten apple...
Strip off the newspapers.
I'll light the fire.
It's about the sale of our land.
The village meadows on the hill are up for sale. Ours too.
Mother wouldn't sell until you came back.
They want to build a winter resort up there.
It's not just the money. It'll liven up the place a bit.
You know the law even better than I do.
You've let your meadows lie fallow.
Nothing but weeds and shrubs...
And the boundaries are far from clear...
However, the Company is willing to take the risk.
You will sign the contract collectively...
It'll be easier and quicker that way.
Otherwise we'll never get to the end of it.
Well, that's all from us, Mayor...
Let's get on with the signatures before we freeze.
I'll call the names by alphabetical order.
Step over here when you hear your name called.
You'll need your identity cards.
Burduis, Evenkilos
Present.
Ibuserandis
Present.
Pallas, Antonis?
Present.
Do you know him?
No, I don't.
What does he think he's doing?
Everybody's got to sign, or the deal is off.
Mayor, you've been leading us on.
You assured us they had all agreed to sell.
You... you bastard...
You come back so late
You should be punished
You've come to make trouble here again...
Put away that shovel, you bastard...
Bastard...
I'm not going to let you...
Bastard...
This slice is for the house...
This is for the father...
And this for Alexandros...
For Voula...
For our Nico, who is at sea...
For our friend...
For the stranger who may knock at our door...
For the mother...
Katerina!
If you don't sign, the deal is off!
We'll be ruined.
All these years you've been the boss in the family.
And now he comes along pretending he cares for the land.
We know all about him.
He made himself a new life abroad...
Excuse us, we're having our supper.
Why won't you let mother sign?
What right have you to refuse?
Ever since I can remember, I never saw her laugh...
She went to prison for your sake.
A lifelong struggle, raising us kids...
A wasted life...
Voula...
Her body dried up, waiting for you.
You and your generation never gave other people a thought.
You took to the mountains, fought and then went away.
Why did you have to come back?
What do you want those damn fields for?
What use can they be to you now?
I'll be on my way now...
Spyro!
You're dead... finished...
You don't exist.
It's the time you roamed the mountains with your gun.
You're dead, Spyro!
You are a dead man
Four times condemned to death...
at the court martial in Larissa...
The newspaper's worn away in my pocket all these years.
You can't play havoc with us again, Spyro.
Be gone
The first year barely goes by...
you manage...
Then the second year... the third.
You've just got to hang on to something...
At first, you think of Greece...
all the things you left behind...
But in the end, you get sick at heart.
Then one day a woman comes along,
cooks you a meal, sews on a button...
And so...
I've got three other children over there.
What's she like... the other one?
Spyro...
They've all gone...
We're the last ones left.
Spyro.
I'm staying.
They made us fight each other...
You on one side, me on the other...
and we both came out losers.
Man against man, wolf against wolf.
All gone, all laid waste...
The fusiliers, the fusiliers...
My heart's with the fusiliers...
If I have to die, let it be...
With my rifle in my arms...