Excursion (1966) - full transcript

EXCURSION

Listen, boys.

You all know what sort of

a war we're at.

We all fight alike

for our parents,

children,

wives.

We're here committed to one cause.

Motherland is going

through a hard time.

And so are we.

The war is rough.

We have to be rough, too.

It is merciless.

There's no war

with pity or mercy.

And the post befallen to us

is paid with blood.

Prior to us

others were here.

They sacrificed themselves.

Now it's us.

But you should well know

your turn will come, too.

Stratos...

Bear this in mind.

Whatever happens I'll be the winner.

I love you...

Did you hear me?

I said, whatever happens.

I love you.

You were late.

I didn't want to come.

I cried a lot.

You love him?

It's different with him.

Do you hate him?

Love and mercy are incompatible.

He has no idea.

He loves you.

You saved his life in that ambush.

That ambush...

I should have let him be killed.

The other day he asked me why

I come here.

What did you answer?

That it's quiet.

I waited for you and thought

you wouldn't show up.

Stratos...

What's wrong with you tonight?

Nothing.

He said something about you

leaving tomorrow.

Yes, we are, in the morning.

There's no other way.

I have a mother, too.

And a wife.

And you have children.

They all want us and

are waiting for us.

But we should know that we may

never see them again.

What do you want, Stratos?

I don't want him between us two.

That's it.

- What's this look you're giving me?

- Not sure. I'm scared about tomorrow.

Swear it.

Will you be careful?

No such oath counts.

No one knows what's coming to them.

I dread at your absence.

I plead.

No use for peading!

You hear?

I came that close many times

and I pulled through.

You won't be rid of me that easy.

You're pretty, Irene.

Is that why you love me?

That, too.

We have to be winning

so as to remain alive.

It was neither me nor you

not Motherland either,

who wanted this war.

But it did happen.

We now must be ready

to face everything.

Irene (Eirini= Peace).

You carved this on that day...

I thought you wouldn't show up.

I always think you won't show up.

I waited and cursed until night fell

and you still were not here.

It wasn't possible.

Kostas was at home.

You know he was away at the time.

I was alone.

And you didn't want to come.

That's why you didn't.

Shortly, you too

as well as myself

may simply be brains

spilled in the dirt.

But that doesn't count at all.

Questions, anyone?

You're here, Kostas?

Did I wake you, Irene?

You'd left the light on,

I lost track of time.

I waited for you, I wasn't asleep.

When is your unit leaving?

In the morning.

- You must be tired, Kostas, I'll

make something... - No, no.

Didn't you go out today?

I walked as far as the river.

It was chilly so I came back.

Spring's here but it's still cold.

Will you...

...go far tomorrow?

Yes.

Yesterday two cars

exploded.

But how?

Nothing was left of them.

Remember that sublieutenant?

Yes.

Only his watch was found.

Those damn mines, if you step on them

nothing's left of you.

Kostas...

You think this war will last?

Who cares?

It'll end, too.

What has a start, it also has an end.

What are you thinking about, Kostas?

Stratos.

I've known him long already but still

I haven't figured him out.

A strange man.

All I know is that he has

noone in the world.

He saved my life twice.

When you thank him

he looks the other way.

He's the first to start out on

the most dangerous missions.

I've scarcely ever seen

a braver man.

On other occasions, however,

he's rather worthless.

I can't explain it.

Once he accused a fellow officer in the

battalion for something he hadn't done.

They found out he was lying.

He was court-martialled.

They asked him

why he had lied.

What did he say?

He was looking into their eyes

saying nothing.

They asked again, he wouldn't answer.

They all knew what his contribution

to the army had been.

- They acquitted him.

- Why did he do it?

I never understood.

What is it, Irene?

Why aren't you eating?

Nothing.

- Hello, Stratos. Everything ready?

- Everything.

- Good morning.

- Good morning, Irene.

Let's go, Stratos.

They'll pass through here.

This is where we'll ambush.

You'll spread out on

both sides of the road.

Let them pass us by,

I'll attack first.

I sometimes recall how

Irene and I met.

You know, Stratos...

With her, it's always like

that first moment.

And this love get more

powerful with time.

I wake at night when she sleeps

and watch her.

For hours.

I can't get enough of her.

To me, Irene is the whole world.

When I was tranferred to this town

I told her not to come.

To stay with her family.

She didn't even want to hear about it.

I now remember what she told me.

Your life is mine too.

And if you shouldn't exist one day

I won't exist either.

We'll split here.

I'll take 3 men and look

around the road carefully.

They may have planted mines.

If they're not here within the

next hour, we'll be back.

Takis!

The Lieutenant's been hurt!

It's alright, Sergeant.

In 4 or 5 days he'll be fine.

- How many?

- 4 or 5.

Is he a friend?

A friend.

Married?

Stratos...

Kostas?

Where is Kostas?

Stratos, talk to me!

Don't get upset, Irene.

This day...

...it was his turn.

Speak, tell me about it!

He was killed.

What did you say, Stratos?

A mine.

It blew him to bits.

It's a lie...

A lie...

This cannot be...

Courage, Irene.

It is so.

Where do they have him?

What's to have?

Nothing was left.

We started there together.

We'd gone for an ambush.

The battalion got the word that

the enemy would pass that way.

They sent us. It wasn't the first time.

We hid by the trees and waited.

They wouldn't show up

but we kept waiting.

At some point...

At some point, Kostas took 3 men.

I asked him where he was going.

To the other side, he said.

We'll attack them from both sides.

Don't go, I told him.

This area is full of mines.

He laughed.

I'm familiar with them, he said.

I stayed there and he went forth.

In less than two minutes,

we heard the explosion.

We all ran to him.

As I went nearer, I saw.

There was nothing left.

A mine, one of those that

blow huge cars to pieces.

It blew him to bits.

Irene...

You always said...

You always said it would be different

if it was just the two of us.

I know. He was your husband.

It's not easy.

But perhaps you too

wanted this to happen.

One of the two had to be killed,

to be gone.

Listen to me.

One of the following days they may

send me to the operations.

I know where this will be.

It's the most dangerous mission.

I know this kind of missions.

No one survives them.

It's a passage on a mountain

that I'll have to guard.

Whoever retreats is executed.

It's a definite suicide.

We must leave, Irene!

If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't

mind getting killed.

After selling my skin

for a good price.

But now

the borders are nearby.

A day and a night's walk.

I'm going to desert.

I know the paths by heart.

We'll get away.

They won't get us.

If I stay here,

if we stay here, we're done for.

I'll be killed, I'm telling you again,

that's for sure.

And if I perish

since you love me,

you perish too.

No, Stratos.

No?

Did you say no?

Yes.

I love him.

I don't know, Kostas.

I didn't want this love.

It seized me by itself.

I thought...

It'll pass...

And it kept drifting me along.

I tried to tell you but...

I couldn't.

None of us clearly saw how

this thing happened.

Neither I...

Nor you, Kostas.

Stratos didn't, either.

I was unhappy and happy

at the same time.

I didn't know what exactly I was.

Even now, I don't.

In a single moment

everything changes.

That night with the gramophone

I meant to tell you.

I wanted us to go away.

When you were with me

he was always there, too.

I believed something was missing

from our love, from the first moment.

From the beginning up to the end,

one story...

Irene!

Irene...

We should leave...

Stratos!

How's the Lieutenant doing?

Heard anything?

- Where's your mind wandering?

- Nowhere.

You must go and see him.

I'd go, but...

but he knows you well.

You're his friend.

In the morning a soldier is bringing

in some medicine. I'll go with him.

How's his wife, you seen her?

I sent someone for her yesterday.

But he didn't find her.

She's off to her kins.

I lied to her, so that

she wouldn't be scared.

What did you tell her?

That the platoon was ordered to advance

towards an unknown destination.

And she believed you?

She did.

Hi, Stratos.

Hi Kostas.

- How are you getting along?

- Looks like I made it.

Does Irene know?

I kept it from her.

You did well.

What did you tell her?

That you were ordered to subtitute for

another man in the operations.

and... you'll be away for a while.

She believed you?

At first, no.

But the battalion confirmed it.

They sent someone who told her

the same thing.

Irene's fine.

You... How are you doing?

Do you drop by and see her?

I did for the first two days.

Now she's gone south, to her kins.

Why?

I spoke her into it.

Why sit here on your own?

Get on a train and leave.

At first, she didn't want to.

How would she receive your letters?

Don't worry, I'll send them to you,

I told her.

I didn't know when you

would come round.

It almost slipped off my tongue.

Sit.

You did well to come.

Last night I thought I was

the only one saved.

How did you get me here?

On a jeep.

Strato...

What is it like outside?

As you knew it.

Has anything changed?

Irene...

If you love me

why are we not leaving?

For your sake, Stratos.

For your sake.

You won't get away, they'll arrest you.

The war will end.

Then we'll be together.

Kiss me.

Hey, Stratos!

They've brought the Lieutenant

in the hospital.

He asked for you to go see him.

That time...

That afternoon when I first

came to meet you

it was springtime,

remember?

I was wearing those sandals.

I threw them away two days ago.

They're useless anymore.

I was late.

You said you would be waiting

because you knew I going to come.

Then you embraced me.

I loved you.

Nothing has changed since then.

It is all like that first moment.

Every time you leave

I feel like I'm losing you.

This fear

an inexplicable knot right here.

Everytime I try clasping you

a piece of glass between us.

Although I know already

if we're to perish

we'll perish together.

If I had never met you, Stratos,

would it have been better?

I'm dreaming...

I'm dreaming of an excursion,

the two of us...

by the sea...

If he was alive...

what would you do?

If he was alive

it would be different.

Do you know we're about to go

on the most dangerous mission?

I know.

Your battalion consider you

to be really brave.

They've brought him to the hospital.

He's waiting for you.

Stratos did well not telling

you the truth.

If he'd told you I was injured

you'd be distressed.

That's why he told you I was

sent to the operations.

Any letters for me?

At the house, no.

Here?

None here, either.

Stratos hasn't written to me.

What's become of him, I wonder.

Who knows?

Heard anything?

Who from?

He should have sent me

a couple of words.

What are you thinking?

If you had gone along with him...

wouldn't you be in danger?

I would.

This is the worst moment of the war.

And the unit, where it's been sent,

quite unsupported.

Is it possible

that they all get killed?

Not all.

But most of them will.

Does it still hurt?

It's just a little numb.

It'll go, too.

I meant to tell you...

What, Kostas?

I woke up last night, I couldn't sleep.

A thought crossed my mind...

If I'd been killed that day,

what would you do?

Why ask me that?

You could get married again.

Be with someone else.

That's what I was thinking about.

Why think of such things?

You have recovered now.

Irene...

Do you love me?

I love you.

Stratos...

Irene...

What were you thinking?

Nothing.

I was just waiting for you.

What is it?

I told you, nothing.

Sergeant.

If you get killed

you want me to give any

message to anyone?

Not to anyone!

The sun hasn't set yet

but it looks like night to me.

Go home, Irene, make a few

preparations, we'll go to the town.

I'm out of hospital tomorrow.

I've been given a month's leave.

Irene!

I have deserted!

You're coming with me!

You'll go after him with 3 men.

He has deserted.

And this

means death during wartime.

He's clever and peculiar, beware.

Altough he's fond of tops

he'll attempt to escape through

lower pathways.

I know him well enough.

He's very often fought by my side.

He didn't desert out of fear.

There's another reason.

Most likely he'll try to

cross the borders.

He won't escape you.

He mustn't.

You must get him alive.

If he tries to get away

execute him on the spot.

Just one request.

The sergeant is a friend of mine.

If possible, someone else could

fill in for me in this mission.

I cannot possibly kill him.

No!

It's you who'll go!

We're not asking about what you want.

I told you what has to be done.

No second thoughts.

It is an order.

That's when I first saw you.

You were coming to collect us

at the station.

You were already late.

We'd been waiting for you.

Kostas had talked to me about you.

You were his friend.

You had saved his life during combat.

And I imagined you as being

a man that tall,

strong,

sullen,

inapproachable.

When he said

"here he comes"

and I saw you nearing us

I thought of it as so funny...

You were like a child, I didn't

value you really.

I was so happy standing by my husband,

what could you be for me,

at that time

and what did you become later...

How many times haven't I recalled

that moment...

How many times haven't I

searched in it to find

the beginning of our love...

I never found anything.

I had my own universe then.

You didn't exist.

So...

you came into my life like

something I didn't evaluate.

I can hear his laughter again...

That laughter of yours...

My laughter...

I was cheerful.

Genuinely cheerful that day.

I couldn't have guessed that

the road we were taking

would finally lead the two of us

to this point.

If I had...

known at the time...

I might have been scared.

But now I have no regrets.

It's daybreak.

How did the night pass...

One more day and night to go.

You think they may be

after us, Stratos?

They must have been notified

about me by now.

That's why we're taking

secret paths.

Besides, this is the only way

we can cross the borders.

If we get there, there are 3 passages,

one of which is unguarded.

But if they suspected

we're going there

they may be following us.

Are you scared?

About you.

We'll lose them.

They can't get me that easy.

Remember that moment, Stratos.

When all three of us

rushed into the sea.

They've passed this way.

They must be hiding around here

somewhere.

You think they may get away?

No.

I wish they do.

Why?

Because.

Are the borders far yet?

Close.

We're very close.

They'll wait for daybreak.

They can't cross by night.

We'll wait, too.

I'm going back to the beginning.

When we played with the swing.

It was your idea.

You climbed up there and set it up.

You said it was your favorite plaything

when you were a child.

Later I was very often tormented by this

back-and-forth between the 2 of us.

I would dream about it at night

and get frightened.

I'd dream about you

grasping the rope,

stopping the swing

and holding me in your arms.

It's definitely you, isn't it?

you shouted.

Then you dropped the rope as if

it burned your hands

and that back-and-forth would

start again.

I don't want to keep it from you,

even now, it is still tormenting me

in the same way.

We may both have cut off that rope,

we may have departed for good,

with no return

but all these things are there still

and I only love you.

In spite of having no regrets.

Every time I met you

I wished it was the next-to-last

time I did so

but when you'd walk away from me

I was overcome by the fear of your

disappearance, your leaving.

Like that day when we lost

your traces for quite some time

when I suddenly saw you diving

from the mast far away

I sighed with relief.

And I wanted to disappear myself,

to go away,

to never see you again.

It never crossed my mind that you could

be feeling the same way I did

but I wanted it to be so.

I was occupied by the thought

that I couldn't bear it if

in this game we two played,

you were indifferent.

That's what you seemed to be,

indifferent.

As he was setting the tripod

to take a photograph of me

he called out to me: Move forward!

Why have you vanished, Irene?

It suddenly occured to me that

he knew everything.

I felt all alone out there

at the pier's end

as if I were standing

at the edge of the world.

Again I felt like running,

leaving and vanishing.

This smile he was about to photograph

would be a fake one.

Like everything around me had

started being fake.

Even you.

When you came and posed next to me

you looked like another person to me,

one I had never seen before.

I was overwhelmed by loneliness

all of a sudden.

I felt like crying.

I wanted noone around me just as

the camera was taking a photo

of us, carefree and content.

And then,

my husband walked up to me,

embraced me as I stood there,

he kissed me.

I recall those excursions.

They look like moments

of an hour to me.

They brought the two of us

together more and more.

Nothing could ever stop what we both

knew was going to happen.

Nevertheless,

without having said anything

to one another

and while also struggling to avoid

what we both wanted,

we looked quite relaxed and content.

Whereas in fact

the circles around us were

constantly closing in.

I had noone else to talk to about it

but you.

Those happy laughters of

our companionship,

those joyfully smiling eyes,

those meek afternoons

by the summer sea

had started strengthening our love.

Even before we decided to.

It's getting dark...

Stratos...

It's getting dark.

Water...

Water...

An excursion.

Excursion...

With you...

With you...

Sergeant...

Sergeant...

An excursion...

Are you alright now?

You ran a fever.

You were raving.

About what?

Were you scared?

That was a lovely day.

So lovely that I said we should

go there again.

And then you shouted out jokingly

that you wouldn't go there again.

And you rushed off swimming

far away from the shore.

You couldn't be seen.

I couldn't see you.

And then, unexpectedly

something clutched at my heart.

It was like the daze the sun

gives you in midsummer.

You close your eyes

yet you see it again.

Its bright white light shining

through your closed eyelids.

Insisting on being there even

when you don't want it.

I felt a fear.

I thought that the whole thing

was a foolishness.

Some folly of mine.

Soon the sky would be clouded,

we wouldn't go down to the sea

anymore, we would part

and it all would end.

Then it was up to me to decide

telling you

what we both knew.

My egotism took over and

I said to myself, no!

I'll wait until you speak first.

But the grief about the summer's end

was already too much.

That evening we went back to town

silent and hasty.

- Were you familiar with the sergeant?

- Yes.

He was a good friend of

her husband's.

In love such things don't count.

It goes straight to your head

and that's all there is.

What if he tries to escape?

Or he doesn't stop?

Shall we shoot him?

They want him alive.

But if he doesn't stop...

Shoot him.

No matter what, he mustn't get away.

That's our order.

And our duty.

If they kill me

what will you do?

When did this happen?

Coming back to me now are more images

from the days of that excursion.

Several trivial instances that

connected me with you.

Quite often we seemed to forget

the love tormenting us.

We'd dash into a desperate move

with no other thought

so as to, supposedly, live

and enjoy...

But you know it well, too.

All this image of joy and carefreeness

was nothing but that one moment

which was trying hard to

conceal the truth.

Are you tired?

Be strong now.

We're almost there.

We're there.

This is where the forest ends.

The passage is this way.

There's a dried up river with

trees on both sides.

We'll wait for morning light.

Crossing by night is dangerous.

We must be able to see ahead of us.

It was the last time we ever

went down to the sea.

It was the first time you

would ever kiss me.

There was a pier in the distance.

You suggested we swam to it.

I reached it first.

Then you arrived

and climbed up on it.

Without a word you embraced me.

I can't even remember how long

I was kissing you for.

And it is like we just

remained like this, in the middle of

the sea, ever since.

The two of us on an excursion.

Just the two of us.

On an excursion

that isn't over yet.

The passage is ahead of us.

We'll guard all four spots so he

won't find a way out.

You think he might surrender?

No.

He knows what's coming to him.

What a pity, sergeant.

You won't be spared.

You regret it?

I'll walk ahead first.

You'll follow me.

We'll crawl on the soil.

So as not to be targets

in case they're still after us.

Only one person knows of

this passage. A sublieutenant.

We were together in

the operations.

You must do as I do.

If I lay down

you lay down.

If I run

you run too.

If they notice us

they'll first shoot once in the air.

This will mean that we have

to surrender.

To go back.

Back?

Stratos...

If we survive and time passes,

all this will look like a distant story,

like a fairytale,

won't it?

Yes.

If we survive.

On that night

the sea was still

and the beach deserted.

The summer was almost over

and I knew that I couln't

keep it any longer.

I had to reveal to you

not my love,

you knew that already

but something else.

That this story of the two of us

would have a different ending from

what usually happens.

And I felt sad,

restless

and happy.

When you looked at me

I knew I couldn't do otherwise.

I was weak right there

before you.

Yielding to that decision of us both.

You got the idea

but you kept back.

Or perhaps you hadn't believed yet,

perhaps you didn't want

to believe

what was coming.

What finally came.

This is the passage.

We're done.

Don't be afraid.

English subs by neverever

for KG (Nov 2014)