Eternity and a Day (1998) - full transcript
Alexander, an old writer, is ill and prepared to die. He says his goodbyes and recalls his life with his wife long ago. While driving his car he saves a street kid, an illegal immigrant from Albania, from being arrested. Later in the day, by chance, he sees the same boy being abducted, and follows in his car. Although he is preoccupied with his own regrets, he puts death on hold to find a way to help the boy.
Alexandros, are you coming?
We're going to the island.
Where?
To the island. We're going to dive
to see the ancient city.
Later, we'll go up to the rock...
and we'll greet the passing boats.
What do you know
of the ancient city?
Grandfather says that it was a happy
city that was swallowed...
by an earthquake and that it
has slept under the sea for centuries.
It comes out of the water once a month
and for very a short time...
when the morning star regrets
to have to leave the Earth...
and stops and contemplates it.
And all stops then... Time also stops.
Time... what is it?
Grandfather says that time is a child
that plays dice on the shore.
Are you coming then?
Alexandros!
You fell asleep here...
And you haven't eaten anything!
I have a taste of salt...
the taste of the sea in my mouth.
So, this is our last day...
Let me come with you,
tomorrow, to the hospital.
Ourania, don't make things harder...
After all, doesn't everything end
sooner or later?
Coffee is served
in the office...
I've also packed your suitcase.
It's not too full, I hope. It's useless...
You know it well.
Ourania...
Ourania, thanks for the 3 years
that you spent here.
Without you, I don't know
what I would have become.
The dog has eaten.
For the last few months...
my only contact with the world...
has been this unknown neighbour of mine,
who always answers to me
with the same music.
A man?
What does he look like?
One morning,
I wanted to go and meet him,
but then I changed my mind.
Maybe it's better
not to meet him but imagine him.
Is he a hermit
like me?
Or perhaps a little girl
who, before leaving for school...
plays with the unknown.
Everything happened by so quickly!
That pain... my stubbornness to
want to learn, to want to know...
then the darkness...
the silence around me...
the silence.
All made me believe
that before the end of winter...
with the ethereal silhouettes of the boats
and their sudden breakthroughs in the sky
with the lovers along the promenade,
in the declining sun,
and the hypocritical promise
of the spring,
all made me believe
that before the end of winter...
My only regret, Anna...
- but is it only that? -
...is not to have finished
almost anything.
I left all as a draft,
shattered words here and there.
Get in!
Where do you come from?
Do you speak Greek?
Do you want me to take you
somewhere?
Hello dad.
What brings you here on Sunday?
You don't answer the phone.
I've been calling for 15 days.
I was worried.
What happened?
I must leave for a while.
I don't know where to leave
the dog, Katerina.
Do you want to drink something?
There's some coffee...
I've also brought these.
Some of your mother's old letters.
My mother's letters?
You're leaving, you said?
Where are you going?
You know? Nikos doesn't want
animals in the house.
And your work, how is it going?
My work?
Your work on "The Free Besieged"
of Solomos.
The unfinished third part.
Isn't that you were working on
when mom died?
Besides, I've never understood how come
a great writer like you...
all of a sudden abandoned his work to
finish an incomplete 19th century poem.
Don't tell me
that you've dropped it too!
I don't know,
maybe I couldn't find the words...
This one has no envelope.
Why?
Shall I read it?
"September 20th, 1966".
My day!
Mom often spoke to me
of that day.
"You were still sleeping
when I woke up."
"I watched you breathe."
"Were you dreaming, Alexandros?"
"You moved your hand slightly
as if you were looking for me."
"Your eyelids blinked,
then you dove back into sleep."
"A drop of sweat rolled
between your eyes..."
"and travelled."
"From aside, the baby uttered
a little moan."
"A door moved."
"I went to the veranda..."
"and cried."
Goodmorning Anna.
I'm having strange dreams
these days.
Were you crying, Anna?
It's nothing.
You were crying.
It's nothing.
Did anything happen?
What's wrong?
Anna, you were crying.
Nothing happened.
So?
How do I look?
Like a summer day!
Liar!
And the gain weight
due to my pregnancy?
Is this a new dress?
You don't remember it?
No, I don't.
You brought it to me
from one of your journeys.
You only think about your book!
When will you send it to the editor,
so we can stay together?
"... If only I could keep that moment..."
"pin it up like a butterfly to
prevent it from flying away."
They arrived!
Go to dress! Quickly!
Go to dress!
Welcome!
"I'm writing to you
in front of the sea..."
"that lies motionless"
"In the house you can smell
the hot milk and the humid jasmine."
"I'm writing to you, I'm talking to you..."
"I'm feeling so close to you
that you're trying to resist."
"Do you think that I threaten
your world, Alexandros?"
"Yet, I'm just a woman in love."
Is the little one sleeping?
She's with her other
grandmother, on the beach.
Grandmother... Like Me!
God, I have grown old!
You see, my daughter, by playing the part of
the naive all the time, your mother got naive.
Not all her roles were naive.
She played Hecuba, Clytemnestra...
My wife is always extreme.
Dad, stop teasing her all the time!
- What about here name?
- Did you decide yet?
Eleni or Katerina...
It depends on which grandmother
will get angrier.
You shine, you know.
My little Anna, a mom!
I am going to put the flowers
in a vase.
As far as I remember,
this house hasn't changed at all.
This will be the last
careless summer, Alekos!
What are you talking about?
Everybody speaks of an intervention
of the army before the elections,
but you politicians,
you play dumb!
"At night, I looked at you."
"I didn't know if you were sleeping
or you were just being quiet."
"I was afraid
of what you could think,"
"afraid of invading your silence."
"So I started looking vulnerable..."
"with the only way i knew...
My body."
"because that was the only that way
that didn't make you feel threatened."
"I am just a woman in love,
Alexandros."
Where?s the lucky father hiding?
Plunged in his thoughts, uncle, as always.
He's there without being there.
As children we had to speak
in a low voice when he was working.
Father got angry when someone
disturbed his beloved son!
And now, if you want to see
the little wonder, follow me!
She's beautiful, isn't she?
"I walked naked on the sand."
"The wind was blowing,"
"a boat passed by."
"You weren't getting up."
"I could still feel your heat on my body."
"I didn't dare to dream
that you were dreaming of me!"
"Oh! Alexandros..."
"If I could have believed it
only for an instant,"
"I would have let myself scream."
Did you say something, dad?
You are leaving already?
I had not understood...
Goodmorning.
I'm glad you came,
I wanted to speak to you.
You know, we sold
the beach house.
The house? You sold it?
Tomorrow morning, I'll give them the keys
and the bulldozer will start working.
Is that your dog?
I am going to dress.
Don't take it so much to heart, dad!
What's wrong with you?
You look so pale.
Do you remember
our first journey?
How old were you?
Fifteen?
The two of us in Yannina
for that damn tennis championship!
You lost
and you started crying.
We had no choice, father...
Only two people, Nikos and me,
in that huge house...
damaged by the earthquake
and surrounded by buildings.
We walked hand in hand
along the banks of the lake.
I tried everything...
you were inconsolable!
A glass of water, please,
and a sandwich.
I have a clandestine kid
on board...
So what?
A little refugee from Albania...
of Greek origin apparently.
So what?
How long does it take from here
to reach the Albanian border?
2 hours... Maybe more if it snows.
You have to cross the mountain.
Why don't you ask
that bus driver?
He's going to Pentalofo in the north,
not far from the border.
He ran away!
They do that all the time!
The cops keep catching them...
and send them back home
but the keep returning.
How did you come to Greece?
Don't you want to tell me?
Is your village far from the border?
Do you have a family over there?
My grandmother.
That bus goes to Pentalofo,
close to the border.
I could not leave you there after
what happened. Do you understand?
I'm leaving on a journey tomorrow.
I don't have the time...
Once there, the driver will find you
a taxi to get to the border.
Don't you want to go
to your grandmother?
# Little exiled bird #
# and unhappy
# a foreign country
is happy to have you
# and I long for you
# What can I send you
my little flower? #
Did you say "my little flower"?
Repeat...
What did you say?
The song... Say it again!
I could not leave you like that.
I had to find a solution.
I know what you want,
but I can't leave you like that!
I just can't!
Goodmorning.
A glass of water.
Where can I find a taxi
to take the child to the border?
It won't be easy to find,
the road is terrible.
My son-in-law has a taxi.
Shall I call him?
Yes.
He'll be here in 10 minutes.
Giorgos, 4 glasses of raki
and something to eat!
# If I send you an apple, it'll rot #
# If I send you a quince
it'll dry #
# a bunch of white grapes #
# will lose its beads along the way #
# I'll send you a tear in a... #
What's wrong?
You're trembling!
Were you afraid of the police?
No.
It's yours.
Remember those words,
on the motorway...
"my little flower"?
Do you know what a poet is?
If I had the time, I would tell to you
the story of a poet...
who used to buy words.
I understand.
Let's go. You are going to freeze...
Let's go.
The armed gangs came down to the streets.
The men were shooting all night.
They entered several houses.
Babies were crying...
The village became deserted.
The passage is up there.
My buddy Selim knew it,
he had already crossed it.
There are a few signs
left by some grown-ups,
some plastic bags
hanging from the trees.
If you don't know, you get lost.
The snow eats you up.
Passing these bags...
you arrive at a bare plateau.
Selim started screaming...
because I didn't know
and kept on walking.
"There are hidden bombs there,
bonehead!" - he tells me.
"Get down! "
I did.
He took a big stone...
and threw it in front of him...
then he crouched down,
before it fell on the snow.
Nothing happened,
so we continued.
He had me crouch down,
I took the stone...
and threw it farther.
I was afraid, I was cold...
We started walking again.
And that way, throwing the stone,
we reached the other side.
We saw the lights far away.
I don't have anybody.
I lied.
I have to leave tomorrow,
I told you.
You've fooled me again!
A sandwich, please!
Don't you ever eat?
Sometimes.
I know what a poet is.
Do you?
I see...
Once there was a poet,
last century.
A great poet.
He was Greek...
but he grew up and lived in Italy.
One day, he learned that the Greek...
who were under the Ottoman,
got their weapons
to earn their freedom.
Then he felt nostalgic...
for his forgotten country,
his early years on the island,
his mother's face,
who still lived there.
He had no peace anymore. He was
feeling delirious everytime he walked.
Every night, he dreamt of his mother...
in her bridal white dress,
calling him.
I made up my mind!
I'm leaving for Greece.
I cannot stay here.
After so many centuries,
Greeks got their weapons.
What can a poet do?
Sing for the revolution,
cry over the dead,
invoke the lost face of freedom.
The following day,
he took a boat from Venice...
and went back to Greece,
in Zakynthos...
his island.
He recognised the faces,
the colours, the perfumes...
his house... but he couldn't
speak the language.
He wanted to sing for the revolution,
but he couldn't speak
his mother's language.
Then he started going through
the popular districts...
the fields, the fishermen's villages,
writing down the words that he heard,
and paying for those
that he heard for the first time.
The news spread everywhere.
"The poet buys words!"
From then on, wherever he went,
poor people all over the island,
old and young...
were chasing him to sell him words.
Abyss...
Fragrant...
Dew...
Stream...
Nightingales...
Sky...
Wave...
Lake...
Unknown...
Scent...
Moonstruck...
Moonstruck.
Moonstruck, tell me,
what did you see tonight?
A night full of miracles.
A night full of magic.
Moonstruck.
And so he wrote his ?Hymn to liberty".
He wrote more poems of course...
among which a very long, incomplete one,
that he called "The Free Besieged".
He spent the rest of his life
trying to finish it.
But he never did.
He lacked some words.
I brought the dog, Ourania.
I couldn't find somewhere to leave him.
My son is getting married.
Forgive me, I didn't want
to spoil your feast.
I don't know where to leave him.
I am sorry...
Let me come with you
tomorrow.
The bride is beautiful!
You know, my daughter and her husband
sold the beach house.
I wanted to...
Maybe he's hungry.
I see you smiling
but you are sad.
Do you want me
to bring you a few words?
They'll cost you a lot!
Stranger...
Stranger... exile...
Stranger everywhere...
Did you just hear that expression?
No. I heard it in my village,
from women.
Do you want me
to bring you others?
Where?
On the island, Anna?
Anna...
Mom, I am afraid that
the sun will harm you!
I've been dreaming
of your father, lately.
Every night.
I miss him so much!
He left too early.
You were on a journey, as usual!
Mother, my first book
was published in France.
You were never too close to him.
You were always contradicting him,
and he suffered for that.
But I returned immediately.
What are you two plotting?
Your hat, mother.
I should have stayed with the baby!
Melpo and the children are with her.
I should have stayed with the baby!
Melpo is with her, don't worry!
"I'm trying to kidnap you between
two books."
"You live your life close to us,
your daughter and me..."
"but not with us."
"I know that one day you will leave."
"The wind pushes your eyes away."
"But share this day with me..."
"as if it was our last."
"Share this day with me!"
Let's swim!
What are you thinking of?
I'm going up for a while!
Traitor!
Why are you angry, Anna?
Please! It won't take long.
Please...
It won't take long.
Traitor!
Christos... Vassilis... Alexandros...
Summer of '39.
Good evening.
Good evening, doctor...
Sorry, I was distracted.
I was worried for you.
I feared that...
It's spreading faster
than you thought? isn't it?
My body doesn't obey anymore...
my body, whose outline vanish
in the mirror and become shade.
I'll go to the hospital tomorrow.
The pain is getting strong.
Well.... It was hard for me...
to tell you about that.
I had such an admiration for you!
Our generation grew up
reading your books and your poems.
Anyway, I have to go.
They're waiting for me.
Why did you disappear?
I was looking for you.
What happened?
Selim...
Good evening.
Who let you in?
It's forbidden, don't you know?
A boy that cleans car windows on
the streets was brought here...
He was run over by a bus
on the boulevard.
I already told you it's forbidden.
Listen, the coroner knows me.
Does he?
Let me make a phonecall.
Selim...
Hey Selim!
What a pity you can't be with us tonight.
Hey Selim!
I'm scared Selim.
The sea is so big.
What awaits for us in the place
where you're going, Selim?
What does the place
where we'll all go look like?
Mountains or cliffs,
policemen or soldiers,
we never quailed.
All I can see is the sea, now,
the endless sea.
At night i saw my mother, in front
of her door with tears on her face.
It was Christmas. The bells were ringing.
The mountain was full of snow.
If only you were here to talk
to us
about all those ports:
Marseille or Naples,
and about the vast world.
Hey Selim talk to us
about the vast world.
Hey Selim talk, talk to us.
Hey Selim, hey Selim...
Good evening!
Good evening.
I'll be right back.
I'd rather leave you alone.
Mother...
Forgive me for not coming earlier...
You know, there's always something...
Mother...
I came to say goodbye.
I'm leaving.
Alexandros!
Alexandros! The table is set.
I'm coming!
Maria, take good care
of my big brother!
I can manage myself. Others may need help.
Where were you?
Your father-in-law got worried.
No, not me. Your mother!
And what does the left wing
say, Alexandros?
About what?
Come here, call the children!
The table is set.
Alexandros is here!
What does the world look like,
seen from above?
Magical!
Am I late, mother?
You'll never grow up.
As a child you used to ran away
like that. Table is set.
Where is Anna?
Anna?
Let's go in the cave up there.
I'm going to look for Anna!
Where are you going Anna?
You lost your head!
"Away, away, to the open sea..."
"your island is traveling."
"One of your shirts, forgotten
on the balcony, trembles in the wind"
"Oh you, protected
by the shadow of a room..."
"overrun by the voices of the night,"
"I look at you
with closed eyes,"
"I listen to you with sealed ears.
With no mouth, I implore you"
The table settings...
the silver plate...
my dowry...
my dowry.
Where did you put them?
They were still here yesterday.
Yesterday...
they were still here.
Why mother...
nothing happens as we wish?
Why?
Why do we have to rot...
helpless...
between pain and desire?
Why did I live my life in exile?
Why did i only felt at home...
when i was able to speak
my own language?
My own language,
when I could find the lost words...
or bring the forgotten words
out of silence.
Why only then i could hear the echo
of my own footsteps in the house?
Why?
Tell me, mother,
why didn't we know how to love?
I wanted to say goodbye.
Are you leaving tonight?
Are you going to leave
in the dead of the night?
I thought...
You made me think...
You are leaving too.
I won't have anybody anymore.
You will.
A big journey soon,
the ports, the whole world.
Goodbye.
Stay with me!
The boat leaves in two hours.
I only have tonight.
Stay with me.
I'm scared.
I'm scared too.
Stay with me.
Stay with me.
Shall we catch it?
"Asomaton" stop.
50 drachmas more.
Two student tickets.
Maria, why do you leave
when I'm speaking to you?
You don't have any reason
to get annoyed.
We need new ways of artistic expression Maria.
And if we can't find them,
we'd better have none!
I love you, I love you
with all my heart...
but you lead a meaningless life.
You show off with that writer...
All the newspapers write about you,
and I'm tired of it.
And yet I love you!
Why do you leave when
I'm talking to you?
The last cool star of dawn was...
foretelling the brightest sunshine;
no cloud, no drift of mist was travelling
across any part of the sky.
Coming from there, the breeze
blew so sweetly across the face,
so gently, that it seemed
to whisper to the depths of the heart:
"life is sweet" and...
"life is sweet".
Tell me...
tomorrow... how long
will it last?
It's time, isn't it?
"Argadini".
What did you say?
Argadini.
Argadini?
It means: very late.
Very late.
Very late in the night.
I must leave.
Goodbye!
"I'm writing you this letter,
in front of the sea,"
"again and again..."
"I write to you, I talk to you."
"When..."
"When one day you remember
this day..."
"remember..."
"'i watched it
with full-sized eyes...'"
"'i caressed it with both hands.'"
"I am here waiting for you,
trembling."
"Share this day with me"
Alexandros!
Anna...
Wanna dance?
I know that you're avoiding it,
but today is my day.
Anna, I won't go to the hospital.
I won't go to the hospital, Anna.
I won't.
I'd like to make plans for tomorrow.
The unknown neighbour will always
answer to me with the same music...
and there will always be someone
to sell me some words.
Tomorrow...
What is tomorrow, Anna?
I once asked you
"how long will tomorrow last?"
and you answered me:
Eternity and a day.
I didn't hear you.
I didn't hear you.
What did you say?
Eternity and a day!
Anna...
My passage to the other side, tonight.
I brought you back with words.
You are here...
and everything is true and waiting
for the truth.
The truth.
# My little flower... #
Stranger...
Me...
Argadini...
Alexandros!
Translation: lyliakar
edited/synchronised: blueboy
We're going to the island.
Where?
To the island. We're going to dive
to see the ancient city.
Later, we'll go up to the rock...
and we'll greet the passing boats.
What do you know
of the ancient city?
Grandfather says that it was a happy
city that was swallowed...
by an earthquake and that it
has slept under the sea for centuries.
It comes out of the water once a month
and for very a short time...
when the morning star regrets
to have to leave the Earth...
and stops and contemplates it.
And all stops then... Time also stops.
Time... what is it?
Grandfather says that time is a child
that plays dice on the shore.
Are you coming then?
Alexandros!
You fell asleep here...
And you haven't eaten anything!
I have a taste of salt...
the taste of the sea in my mouth.
So, this is our last day...
Let me come with you,
tomorrow, to the hospital.
Ourania, don't make things harder...
After all, doesn't everything end
sooner or later?
Coffee is served
in the office...
I've also packed your suitcase.
It's not too full, I hope. It's useless...
You know it well.
Ourania...
Ourania, thanks for the 3 years
that you spent here.
Without you, I don't know
what I would have become.
The dog has eaten.
For the last few months...
my only contact with the world...
has been this unknown neighbour of mine,
who always answers to me
with the same music.
A man?
What does he look like?
One morning,
I wanted to go and meet him,
but then I changed my mind.
Maybe it's better
not to meet him but imagine him.
Is he a hermit
like me?
Or perhaps a little girl
who, before leaving for school...
plays with the unknown.
Everything happened by so quickly!
That pain... my stubbornness to
want to learn, to want to know...
then the darkness...
the silence around me...
the silence.
All made me believe
that before the end of winter...
with the ethereal silhouettes of the boats
and their sudden breakthroughs in the sky
with the lovers along the promenade,
in the declining sun,
and the hypocritical promise
of the spring,
all made me believe
that before the end of winter...
My only regret, Anna...
- but is it only that? -
...is not to have finished
almost anything.
I left all as a draft,
shattered words here and there.
Get in!
Where do you come from?
Do you speak Greek?
Do you want me to take you
somewhere?
Hello dad.
What brings you here on Sunday?
You don't answer the phone.
I've been calling for 15 days.
I was worried.
What happened?
I must leave for a while.
I don't know where to leave
the dog, Katerina.
Do you want to drink something?
There's some coffee...
I've also brought these.
Some of your mother's old letters.
My mother's letters?
You're leaving, you said?
Where are you going?
You know? Nikos doesn't want
animals in the house.
And your work, how is it going?
My work?
Your work on "The Free Besieged"
of Solomos.
The unfinished third part.
Isn't that you were working on
when mom died?
Besides, I've never understood how come
a great writer like you...
all of a sudden abandoned his work to
finish an incomplete 19th century poem.
Don't tell me
that you've dropped it too!
I don't know,
maybe I couldn't find the words...
This one has no envelope.
Why?
Shall I read it?
"September 20th, 1966".
My day!
Mom often spoke to me
of that day.
"You were still sleeping
when I woke up."
"I watched you breathe."
"Were you dreaming, Alexandros?"
"You moved your hand slightly
as if you were looking for me."
"Your eyelids blinked,
then you dove back into sleep."
"A drop of sweat rolled
between your eyes..."
"and travelled."
"From aside, the baby uttered
a little moan."
"A door moved."
"I went to the veranda..."
"and cried."
Goodmorning Anna.
I'm having strange dreams
these days.
Were you crying, Anna?
It's nothing.
You were crying.
It's nothing.
Did anything happen?
What's wrong?
Anna, you were crying.
Nothing happened.
So?
How do I look?
Like a summer day!
Liar!
And the gain weight
due to my pregnancy?
Is this a new dress?
You don't remember it?
No, I don't.
You brought it to me
from one of your journeys.
You only think about your book!
When will you send it to the editor,
so we can stay together?
"... If only I could keep that moment..."
"pin it up like a butterfly to
prevent it from flying away."
They arrived!
Go to dress! Quickly!
Go to dress!
Welcome!
"I'm writing to you
in front of the sea..."
"that lies motionless"
"In the house you can smell
the hot milk and the humid jasmine."
"I'm writing to you, I'm talking to you..."
"I'm feeling so close to you
that you're trying to resist."
"Do you think that I threaten
your world, Alexandros?"
"Yet, I'm just a woman in love."
Is the little one sleeping?
She's with her other
grandmother, on the beach.
Grandmother... Like Me!
God, I have grown old!
You see, my daughter, by playing the part of
the naive all the time, your mother got naive.
Not all her roles were naive.
She played Hecuba, Clytemnestra...
My wife is always extreme.
Dad, stop teasing her all the time!
- What about here name?
- Did you decide yet?
Eleni or Katerina...
It depends on which grandmother
will get angrier.
You shine, you know.
My little Anna, a mom!
I am going to put the flowers
in a vase.
As far as I remember,
this house hasn't changed at all.
This will be the last
careless summer, Alekos!
What are you talking about?
Everybody speaks of an intervention
of the army before the elections,
but you politicians,
you play dumb!
"At night, I looked at you."
"I didn't know if you were sleeping
or you were just being quiet."
"I was afraid
of what you could think,"
"afraid of invading your silence."
"So I started looking vulnerable..."
"with the only way i knew...
My body."
"because that was the only that way
that didn't make you feel threatened."
"I am just a woman in love,
Alexandros."
Where?s the lucky father hiding?
Plunged in his thoughts, uncle, as always.
He's there without being there.
As children we had to speak
in a low voice when he was working.
Father got angry when someone
disturbed his beloved son!
And now, if you want to see
the little wonder, follow me!
She's beautiful, isn't she?
"I walked naked on the sand."
"The wind was blowing,"
"a boat passed by."
"You weren't getting up."
"I could still feel your heat on my body."
"I didn't dare to dream
that you were dreaming of me!"
"Oh! Alexandros..."
"If I could have believed it
only for an instant,"
"I would have let myself scream."
Did you say something, dad?
You are leaving already?
I had not understood...
Goodmorning.
I'm glad you came,
I wanted to speak to you.
You know, we sold
the beach house.
The house? You sold it?
Tomorrow morning, I'll give them the keys
and the bulldozer will start working.
Is that your dog?
I am going to dress.
Don't take it so much to heart, dad!
What's wrong with you?
You look so pale.
Do you remember
our first journey?
How old were you?
Fifteen?
The two of us in Yannina
for that damn tennis championship!
You lost
and you started crying.
We had no choice, father...
Only two people, Nikos and me,
in that huge house...
damaged by the earthquake
and surrounded by buildings.
We walked hand in hand
along the banks of the lake.
I tried everything...
you were inconsolable!
A glass of water, please,
and a sandwich.
I have a clandestine kid
on board...
So what?
A little refugee from Albania...
of Greek origin apparently.
So what?
How long does it take from here
to reach the Albanian border?
2 hours... Maybe more if it snows.
You have to cross the mountain.
Why don't you ask
that bus driver?
He's going to Pentalofo in the north,
not far from the border.
He ran away!
They do that all the time!
The cops keep catching them...
and send them back home
but the keep returning.
How did you come to Greece?
Don't you want to tell me?
Is your village far from the border?
Do you have a family over there?
My grandmother.
That bus goes to Pentalofo,
close to the border.
I could not leave you there after
what happened. Do you understand?
I'm leaving on a journey tomorrow.
I don't have the time...
Once there, the driver will find you
a taxi to get to the border.
Don't you want to go
to your grandmother?
# Little exiled bird #
# and unhappy
# a foreign country
is happy to have you
# and I long for you
# What can I send you
my little flower? #
Did you say "my little flower"?
Repeat...
What did you say?
The song... Say it again!
I could not leave you like that.
I had to find a solution.
I know what you want,
but I can't leave you like that!
I just can't!
Goodmorning.
A glass of water.
Where can I find a taxi
to take the child to the border?
It won't be easy to find,
the road is terrible.
My son-in-law has a taxi.
Shall I call him?
Yes.
He'll be here in 10 minutes.
Giorgos, 4 glasses of raki
and something to eat!
# If I send you an apple, it'll rot #
# If I send you a quince
it'll dry #
# a bunch of white grapes #
# will lose its beads along the way #
# I'll send you a tear in a... #
What's wrong?
You're trembling!
Were you afraid of the police?
No.
It's yours.
Remember those words,
on the motorway...
"my little flower"?
Do you know what a poet is?
If I had the time, I would tell to you
the story of a poet...
who used to buy words.
I understand.
Let's go. You are going to freeze...
Let's go.
The armed gangs came down to the streets.
The men were shooting all night.
They entered several houses.
Babies were crying...
The village became deserted.
The passage is up there.
My buddy Selim knew it,
he had already crossed it.
There are a few signs
left by some grown-ups,
some plastic bags
hanging from the trees.
If you don't know, you get lost.
The snow eats you up.
Passing these bags...
you arrive at a bare plateau.
Selim started screaming...
because I didn't know
and kept on walking.
"There are hidden bombs there,
bonehead!" - he tells me.
"Get down! "
I did.
He took a big stone...
and threw it in front of him...
then he crouched down,
before it fell on the snow.
Nothing happened,
so we continued.
He had me crouch down,
I took the stone...
and threw it farther.
I was afraid, I was cold...
We started walking again.
And that way, throwing the stone,
we reached the other side.
We saw the lights far away.
I don't have anybody.
I lied.
I have to leave tomorrow,
I told you.
You've fooled me again!
A sandwich, please!
Don't you ever eat?
Sometimes.
I know what a poet is.
Do you?
I see...
Once there was a poet,
last century.
A great poet.
He was Greek...
but he grew up and lived in Italy.
One day, he learned that the Greek...
who were under the Ottoman,
got their weapons
to earn their freedom.
Then he felt nostalgic...
for his forgotten country,
his early years on the island,
his mother's face,
who still lived there.
He had no peace anymore. He was
feeling delirious everytime he walked.
Every night, he dreamt of his mother...
in her bridal white dress,
calling him.
I made up my mind!
I'm leaving for Greece.
I cannot stay here.
After so many centuries,
Greeks got their weapons.
What can a poet do?
Sing for the revolution,
cry over the dead,
invoke the lost face of freedom.
The following day,
he took a boat from Venice...
and went back to Greece,
in Zakynthos...
his island.
He recognised the faces,
the colours, the perfumes...
his house... but he couldn't
speak the language.
He wanted to sing for the revolution,
but he couldn't speak
his mother's language.
Then he started going through
the popular districts...
the fields, the fishermen's villages,
writing down the words that he heard,
and paying for those
that he heard for the first time.
The news spread everywhere.
"The poet buys words!"
From then on, wherever he went,
poor people all over the island,
old and young...
were chasing him to sell him words.
Abyss...
Fragrant...
Dew...
Stream...
Nightingales...
Sky...
Wave...
Lake...
Unknown...
Scent...
Moonstruck...
Moonstruck.
Moonstruck, tell me,
what did you see tonight?
A night full of miracles.
A night full of magic.
Moonstruck.
And so he wrote his ?Hymn to liberty".
He wrote more poems of course...
among which a very long, incomplete one,
that he called "The Free Besieged".
He spent the rest of his life
trying to finish it.
But he never did.
He lacked some words.
I brought the dog, Ourania.
I couldn't find somewhere to leave him.
My son is getting married.
Forgive me, I didn't want
to spoil your feast.
I don't know where to leave him.
I am sorry...
Let me come with you
tomorrow.
The bride is beautiful!
You know, my daughter and her husband
sold the beach house.
I wanted to...
Maybe he's hungry.
I see you smiling
but you are sad.
Do you want me
to bring you a few words?
They'll cost you a lot!
Stranger...
Stranger... exile...
Stranger everywhere...
Did you just hear that expression?
No. I heard it in my village,
from women.
Do you want me
to bring you others?
Where?
On the island, Anna?
Anna...
Mom, I am afraid that
the sun will harm you!
I've been dreaming
of your father, lately.
Every night.
I miss him so much!
He left too early.
You were on a journey, as usual!
Mother, my first book
was published in France.
You were never too close to him.
You were always contradicting him,
and he suffered for that.
But I returned immediately.
What are you two plotting?
Your hat, mother.
I should have stayed with the baby!
Melpo and the children are with her.
I should have stayed with the baby!
Melpo is with her, don't worry!
"I'm trying to kidnap you between
two books."
"You live your life close to us,
your daughter and me..."
"but not with us."
"I know that one day you will leave."
"The wind pushes your eyes away."
"But share this day with me..."
"as if it was our last."
"Share this day with me!"
Let's swim!
What are you thinking of?
I'm going up for a while!
Traitor!
Why are you angry, Anna?
Please! It won't take long.
Please...
It won't take long.
Traitor!
Christos... Vassilis... Alexandros...
Summer of '39.
Good evening.
Good evening, doctor...
Sorry, I was distracted.
I was worried for you.
I feared that...
It's spreading faster
than you thought? isn't it?
My body doesn't obey anymore...
my body, whose outline vanish
in the mirror and become shade.
I'll go to the hospital tomorrow.
The pain is getting strong.
Well.... It was hard for me...
to tell you about that.
I had such an admiration for you!
Our generation grew up
reading your books and your poems.
Anyway, I have to go.
They're waiting for me.
Why did you disappear?
I was looking for you.
What happened?
Selim...
Good evening.
Who let you in?
It's forbidden, don't you know?
A boy that cleans car windows on
the streets was brought here...
He was run over by a bus
on the boulevard.
I already told you it's forbidden.
Listen, the coroner knows me.
Does he?
Let me make a phonecall.
Selim...
Hey Selim!
What a pity you can't be with us tonight.
Hey Selim!
I'm scared Selim.
The sea is so big.
What awaits for us in the place
where you're going, Selim?
What does the place
where we'll all go look like?
Mountains or cliffs,
policemen or soldiers,
we never quailed.
All I can see is the sea, now,
the endless sea.
At night i saw my mother, in front
of her door with tears on her face.
It was Christmas. The bells were ringing.
The mountain was full of snow.
If only you were here to talk
to us
about all those ports:
Marseille or Naples,
and about the vast world.
Hey Selim talk to us
about the vast world.
Hey Selim talk, talk to us.
Hey Selim, hey Selim...
Good evening!
Good evening.
I'll be right back.
I'd rather leave you alone.
Mother...
Forgive me for not coming earlier...
You know, there's always something...
Mother...
I came to say goodbye.
I'm leaving.
Alexandros!
Alexandros! The table is set.
I'm coming!
Maria, take good care
of my big brother!
I can manage myself. Others may need help.
Where were you?
Your father-in-law got worried.
No, not me. Your mother!
And what does the left wing
say, Alexandros?
About what?
Come here, call the children!
The table is set.
Alexandros is here!
What does the world look like,
seen from above?
Magical!
Am I late, mother?
You'll never grow up.
As a child you used to ran away
like that. Table is set.
Where is Anna?
Anna?
Let's go in the cave up there.
I'm going to look for Anna!
Where are you going Anna?
You lost your head!
"Away, away, to the open sea..."
"your island is traveling."
"One of your shirts, forgotten
on the balcony, trembles in the wind"
"Oh you, protected
by the shadow of a room..."
"overrun by the voices of the night,"
"I look at you
with closed eyes,"
"I listen to you with sealed ears.
With no mouth, I implore you"
The table settings...
the silver plate...
my dowry...
my dowry.
Where did you put them?
They were still here yesterday.
Yesterday...
they were still here.
Why mother...
nothing happens as we wish?
Why?
Why do we have to rot...
helpless...
between pain and desire?
Why did I live my life in exile?
Why did i only felt at home...
when i was able to speak
my own language?
My own language,
when I could find the lost words...
or bring the forgotten words
out of silence.
Why only then i could hear the echo
of my own footsteps in the house?
Why?
Tell me, mother,
why didn't we know how to love?
I wanted to say goodbye.
Are you leaving tonight?
Are you going to leave
in the dead of the night?
I thought...
You made me think...
You are leaving too.
I won't have anybody anymore.
You will.
A big journey soon,
the ports, the whole world.
Goodbye.
Stay with me!
The boat leaves in two hours.
I only have tonight.
Stay with me.
I'm scared.
I'm scared too.
Stay with me.
Stay with me.
Shall we catch it?
"Asomaton" stop.
50 drachmas more.
Two student tickets.
Maria, why do you leave
when I'm speaking to you?
You don't have any reason
to get annoyed.
We need new ways of artistic expression Maria.
And if we can't find them,
we'd better have none!
I love you, I love you
with all my heart...
but you lead a meaningless life.
You show off with that writer...
All the newspapers write about you,
and I'm tired of it.
And yet I love you!
Why do you leave when
I'm talking to you?
The last cool star of dawn was...
foretelling the brightest sunshine;
no cloud, no drift of mist was travelling
across any part of the sky.
Coming from there, the breeze
blew so sweetly across the face,
so gently, that it seemed
to whisper to the depths of the heart:
"life is sweet" and...
"life is sweet".
Tell me...
tomorrow... how long
will it last?
It's time, isn't it?
"Argadini".
What did you say?
Argadini.
Argadini?
It means: very late.
Very late.
Very late in the night.
I must leave.
Goodbye!
"I'm writing you this letter,
in front of the sea,"
"again and again..."
"I write to you, I talk to you."
"When..."
"When one day you remember
this day..."
"remember..."
"'i watched it
with full-sized eyes...'"
"'i caressed it with both hands.'"
"I am here waiting for you,
trembling."
"Share this day with me"
Alexandros!
Anna...
Wanna dance?
I know that you're avoiding it,
but today is my day.
Anna, I won't go to the hospital.
I won't go to the hospital, Anna.
I won't.
I'd like to make plans for tomorrow.
The unknown neighbour will always
answer to me with the same music...
and there will always be someone
to sell me some words.
Tomorrow...
What is tomorrow, Anna?
I once asked you
"how long will tomorrow last?"
and you answered me:
Eternity and a day.
I didn't hear you.
I didn't hear you.
What did you say?
Eternity and a day!
Anna...
My passage to the other side, tonight.
I brought you back with words.
You are here...
and everything is true and waiting
for the truth.
The truth.
# My little flower... #
Stranger...
Me...
Argadini...
Alexandros!
Translation: lyliakar
edited/synchronised: blueboy