Days of '36,

THEO AGELOPOULOS

(MERES TOU 36)

THEODOROS AGELOPOULOS

ENGLISH AND FRENCH SUBTITLES

 

"Going back to Metaxas, the two parties [right-wing and center] had enthroned him despite his being a real fascist, following in the tracks of earlier previous dictators. He did not make any effort to dissimulate his positions, and he had no scruples declaring that under his guidance, Greece would never face the risk of another autocracy. The King (joining forces with Metaxas and the British) wanted stability at any price, even if this meant opening the door to a dictator. ...What I was looking for was a certain climate. A reign of terror." –

Theo Angelopoulos (Unveiling the Patterns of Power: The Days of '36 interview with Ulrich Gregor)

 

Ostensibly centered on the real-life incident in 1936 of a parliamentary official held hostage at gunpoint by a prisoner in isolated confinement during a seemingly routine jailhouse visit, Days of '36 is a probing, incisive, and critical examination of the synchronicity of several events during the early days of the Metaxas rule that, when collectively examined, would provide an ominous foreshadowing of the atmosphere of injustice, secrecy, abuse, thuggery, and intimidation that would define the zeitgeist of prewar Greece and, inferentially, expose the underlying cultural infrastructure that enabled the country's tumultuous political evolution that would eventually lead to the then-ruling military junta of the colonels. Angelopoulos follows in a similar elliptical chronology and distanced observation infused with unobtrusive, cinema vérité-styled camerawork (most notably in the film’s recurring use of overhead cameras in interior spaces) introduced in his first feature RECONSTRUCTION to create a re-enacted, but atmospherically (and psychologically) faithful chronicle of the times: the assassination of a union leader during a public appearance, the nebulous relationship between the captive official and the prisoner (note a guard’s uncorroborated observation of the two laughing that suggests an arrangement between the two, perhaps in the prisoner's erstwhile capacity as party informant), the attempted escape by several convicts during a riot in the prison grounds, the government's deployment of trained assassins posing undercover as mob hit men to end the standoff. Through the systematic silencing of the opposition and political agitators, the covert suppression of scandal, and heavy-handed government enforcement of social order, Angelopoulos exposes the underlying vulnerability and resulting paranoia endemic in the Metaxas government - a political ascension forged through the tenuous alliance of the right-wing, monarchists, and centrists as a means of neutralizing the influence of the left-wing and communist party - that would set an inevitable precedent for the entrenched factionalism and instability that would pave the way to civil war and the ensuing turbulent history of postwar autocratic governments.
 

Directed by : Theo Angelopoulos
Written by : Theo Angelopoulos, Petros Markaris, Thanassis Valtinos and Stratis Karras
Cinematography by : Giorgos Arvanitis
Production design by : Mikes Karapiperis
Music by : Giorgos Papastefanou
Sound by : Thanassis Arvanitis
Edited by : Vassilis Syropoulos
Produced by : Giorgos Papalios
With : Giorgos Kiritsis (Lawyer), Christoforos Chimaras (Minister), Takis Doukakos (Chief of Police), Kostas Pavlou (Sofianos), Petros Zarkadis (Lukas Petros), Christophoros Nezer (Prison Warden), Vassilis Tsaglos (Guard), Yannis Kandilas (Kreezis), Thanos Grammenos (Sofianos' brother)

 

A trade unionist is assassinated at a workers' rally and a former police informer, Sofianos, is arrested and charged with the murder. The accused, a greatly troubled personage, currently out on probation, an ex drug-trafficker is being used to infiltrate and bring down his old accomplices. He is visited in prison by a Conservative Member of Parliament with whom he has a homosexual relationship. Using a smuggled gun, the prisoner takes the politician hostage creating an embarrassing and increasingly absurd scandal for the authorities. The government find themselves in a delicate predicament. If they do not free the hostage they will lose the support of the Conservatives and if they do the support of the democrats.. Forced to deal with a situation they cannot control and when «reason» and threats fail, they attempt to dispose of Sofianos, at first clumsily (a botched attempt to poison the prisoner), then, finally, with the devastating accuracy of a bullet as they send in a sharpshooter to finish the job. Order is finally restored but in the process two facts have emerged that reflect Angelopoulos' view of Greek history as portrayed in this film. Firstly that the government was so weak and corrupt that the actions of one person almost brought it down and secondly that it was so incompetent that it could solve a problem only through murder.

  

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This Theo Angelopoulos film is a political and crime thriller set in Greece in 1936 and based on a true story. Concerns for political stability override concerns for justice or fair play at this chaotic time in Greek history. When the man convicted of murdering a politician protests his innocence of the crime by holding a lawman hostage in his cell, it creates a national crisis.

DVD FEATURES

  Fullscreen Version

  Greek 5.1 and Greek 2.0 audio options

English & French subtitles

  Digitally remastered from the original 35mm negative print

  Transfer supervised by Theo Angelopoulos

Running time:110 minutes

    

 

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