To Vlemma tou Odyssea

A (a role played by Harvey Keitel) is a Greek film-maker working in America who returns home to his birthplace Ptolemaïs after 35 years, ostensibly to attend the screening of his latest film. The real reason for his return is that he wants to make a documentary about the Manakias brothers, two film-makers who filmed everyday life in the Balkan in the early days of cinema without being restricted by ethnic, religious or national boundaries. A has understood that three of their lost rolls of film are in the Sarajevo film archive and is determined to find them. On his journey through the Balkans – from Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Rumania, Serbia to Bosnia – he also looks back on his own personal past and meets a variety of characters, among them different incarnations of the same woman, whom he loves and keeps losing. To Vlemma tou Odyssea (the Look of Odysseus) may be Angelopoulos’ most autobiographical and contemporary film. The protagonist, like Odysseus, is on a physical and spiritual journey and doesn’t know where it’ll end. Angelopoulos uses his alter ego A to trace the origins of the Bosnian conflict and to condemn the cruelty. The film is beautifully shot and has several memorable scenes, including one of a gigantic statue of Lenin that is transported by boat down the Danube.