THE TRAVELLING PLAYERS is a film of epic proportions. The action takes place during the years 1939-52 and is seen as a series of individual, often inexplicable events or tableaux, commentated by monologues, by slogans written on the walls, or by songs. It reveals the period's turbulent history while focusing on a travelling company of actors who spend those fourteen years wandering through provinces, cities and villages, performing, in increasingly threadbare circumstances, a 19th century pastoral melodrama, Persiadis' Golfo the Shepherdess. They never get to finish the play and the tranquil sheep painted on their back cloth gaze down upon generations of anguish and bloodshed. The passage of history reverberates in individual incidents or is summarized in symbols. These sad, shabby, often hungry folk, whose relationship is based on the family of the House of Atreus, are of varying political hues - from active collaborators with the Nazis (Aegisthus), to opportunists (Chrysothemis), to centrist Greek patriots (Agamemnon), to the apolitical (Clytemnestra), to left-wing idealists (Electra), to communist guerillas (Orestes). And they fill these roles as much as they do the mythic ones of wandering general, faithless wife, betrayer or vengeful son. As they travel amid the constant wartime convulsions, they begin, unconsciously, to enact parallels to Aeschylus' tragic cycle.
Original Title | O Thiasos - The Travelling Players | ||||||||||||||||||||
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German Title | Die Wanderschauspieler | ||||||||||||||||||||
French Title | Le voyage des comédiens - The Travelling Players | ||||||||||||||||||||
Other Titles | La recita - O Thiassos | ||||||||||||||||||||
Directed by | Theo Angelopoulos | ||||||||||||||||||||
Country | Greece | ||||||||||||||||||||
Available Formats | 35mm, DVD, Blu-ray | ||||||||||||||||||||
Screenplay | Theodoros Angelopoulos | ||||||||||||||||||||
Film Editing | Takis Davlopoulos, Giorgos Triandafyllou | ||||||||||||||||||||
Soundtrack | Loukianos Kilaidonis | ||||||||||||||||||||
Cinematography | Giorgos Arvanitis | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sound | Thanassis Arvanitis | ||||||||||||||||||||
Décors | Mikes Karapiperis | ||||||||||||||||||||
Costumes | Giorgos Patsas | ||||||||||||||||||||
Production | Giorgos Papalios | ||||||||||||||||||||
Runtime | 230 Min. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Language | Griechisch/d/f | ||||||||||||||||||||
Actors |
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Cannes Film Festival 1975: Directors’ Fortnight, FIPRESCI Grand Prix
Berlin Forum des Jungen Films 1975: Interfilm Award
Brussels 1976 Best Film of the year
British Film Institute 1976: Golden Age Award, Best Film of the Year
Thessaloniki Film Festival: Best Film
Japan Best Film of the Year Grand Prix of the Arts, Japan Best Film in the World 1970-1980
Best Film in the History of Cinema 40th: Italian Critics’ Association FIPRESCI
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