I just saw this fine film at the European Union Film Festival in Washington. The acting is first rate and the script is excellent. A young Greek man survives the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 but he broods throughout while growing up and desires to revisit his village. He meets a woman who regularly goes between the lines selling black market goods. She agrees to take him to his village. The lessons that he learns and that we learn are the core of this film. If this opens in your area, I highly recommend that you see this film.
3 Reviews
BEAUTIFUL!
demetrischristodoulides26 January 2004
Disappointed by the last scene
erginel6 April 2004
Warning: Spoilers
There may be spoilers ahead!
Under the Stars is a well written and directed film, and as such I believe it deserves many of the credits it has received.
The film skilfully brings out the human element the tragedy of Cyprus . . . but from a Greek Cypriot perspective.
The truth is that there are Turkish Cypriots on the island as well, who have suffered equally (if not more)than Greek Cypriots. The film falls victim to being one sided, and focusing solely on the sorrows of the Greek Cypriots.
The film is also the victim of Greek Cypriot prejudices against Turks. In it, Turks are mostly portrayed as soldiers and/or people interested in doing illegal things to make money (The Turkish Cypriot couple whose son died at a Greek prison is the only example that falls outside these categories).
The film builds a momentum with the tension between the male and female characters, the former consumed by his longing for his village on the one hand and hatred of Turks on the other, and the latter apparently having the vision of going beyond ethnic hatred. Towards the end of the movie one expects an epiphany in the male character, going beyond the war and politics in Cyprus, and becoming in peace with himself.
While a human element is there throughout the movie, the last scene destroys the viewer's expectations. The Greek Cypriot soldiers guarding the border with the Turkish Cypriot side in the beginning of the film are shown to have a non-violent, sometimes friendly dialogue with the soldiers on the other (Turkish) side. In the final scene one Greek Cypriot soldier goes to the buffer area to pick his cap, and there he is shot, in the back, by the very Turkish soldiers they had been playing and joking with at the beginning of the movie.
With this last scene, the movie completes the image of Turks as soldiers, persons associated with war and death, shifty characters, and people who cannot be trusted -- for they would easily shoot their friends in the back.
The film tries to build a human perception that transcends the political reality of Cyprus, but the last scene ruins it all. I felt that, in the last scene, the director shot me in the back.
Under the Stars is a well written and directed film, and as such I believe it deserves many of the credits it has received.
The film skilfully brings out the human element the tragedy of Cyprus . . . but from a Greek Cypriot perspective.
The truth is that there are Turkish Cypriots on the island as well, who have suffered equally (if not more)than Greek Cypriots. The film falls victim to being one sided, and focusing solely on the sorrows of the Greek Cypriots.
The film is also the victim of Greek Cypriot prejudices against Turks. In it, Turks are mostly portrayed as soldiers and/or people interested in doing illegal things to make money (The Turkish Cypriot couple whose son died at a Greek prison is the only example that falls outside these categories).
The film builds a momentum with the tension between the male and female characters, the former consumed by his longing for his village on the one hand and hatred of Turks on the other, and the latter apparently having the vision of going beyond ethnic hatred. Towards the end of the movie one expects an epiphany in the male character, going beyond the war and politics in Cyprus, and becoming in peace with himself.
While a human element is there throughout the movie, the last scene destroys the viewer's expectations. The Greek Cypriot soldiers guarding the border with the Turkish Cypriot side in the beginning of the film are shown to have a non-violent, sometimes friendly dialogue with the soldiers on the other (Turkish) side. In the final scene one Greek Cypriot soldier goes to the buffer area to pick his cap, and there he is shot, in the back, by the very Turkish soldiers they had been playing and joking with at the beginning of the movie.
With this last scene, the movie completes the image of Turks as soldiers, persons associated with war and death, shifty characters, and people who cannot be trusted -- for they would easily shoot their friends in the back.
The film tries to build a human perception that transcends the political reality of Cyprus, but the last scene ruins it all. I felt that, in the last scene, the director shot me in the back.
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