April 12 – 20, 2024

 

Michael Cacoyannis

Memory tribute to Michael Cacoyannis

Iphigenia

Michael Cacoyannis
127’ / 1977
Greece

LEMESOS
Sunday  22.04 @ 16:00

When the Athenians took off in ships to recover their fabled noble daughter Helen from Paris of Troy, their sailing ships were stalled for lack of wind among a group of islands. They didn’t have enough food on board for a long stay at sea, and some of the expedition leaders, including Agamemnon and Meneleus, the cuckolded husband of Helen, decide to go ashore and kill some deer. However, they know that those particular deer are sacred to the gods, and that killing them would bring a curse for impiety onto the whole group. The head of the expedition, on examining the subsequent oracles, tells Agamemnon that the Athenian fleet will have no wind until he sacrifices his own daughter Iphigenia  to atone for the death of the sacred deer. Clytemnestra, the girl’s mother, tries everything in her power to prevent the sacrifice but is unsuccessful.

Sweet Country

Michael Cacoyannis

147’ / 1986
Greece

LEMESOS
Sunday  22.04 @ 18:00

Anna and Ben are an American couple who have relocated to Chile (circa 1973), which is in turmoil due to the recent murder of Chilean President Salvador Allende, whose revolutionary leftist ideas angered the military. Anna and Ben become friends with Eva, the matriarch of a Chilean clan whose daughter Anna worked for Allende. Anna’s connection to the slain Marxist leader causes anguish for both families, particularly when Eva and many others are imprisoned and tortured, for their political beliefs.