Mia aioniotita kai mia mera
| Eternity and a Day | |
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french film poster
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| Directed by | Theo Angelopoulos |
| Produced by | Theo Angelopoulos Eric Heumann Giorgio Silvagni |
| Written by |
Tonino Guerra Theo Angelopoulos Petros Markaris Giorgio Silvagni |
| Starring |
Bruno Ganz Isabelle Renauld Fabrizio Bentivoglio |
| Music by | Eleni Karaindrou |
| Cinematography |
Yorgos Arvanitis Andreas Sinanos |
| Distributed by |
Artistic License Merchant Ivory Productions (U.S.) Artificial Eye (UK) |
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Release date
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Running time
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132 minutes |
| Country | Greece |
| Language | Greek (parts in English and Italian) |
Eternity and a Day (Greek: Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα, Mia aioniotita kai mia mera) is a 1998 Greek film starring Bruno Ganz, and directed by Theo Angelopoulos. The film won the Palme d'Or and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as the Greek entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 71st Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Alexander (Bruno Ganz), a bearded poet, leaves his seaside apartment in Thessaloniki after learning he has a terminal illness and must enter a hospital the next day for an unspecified "test". He is trying to get his affairs in order and find a new master for his dog.
Alexander saves a six- or seven-year-old boy who is a vagrant window washer from a band of policemen who are chasing down similar boys. He pays a visit to his thirtyish daughter (Iris Chatziantoniou), and musing on his likely dead wife, Anna (Isabelle Renauld), who appears as almost the same age as their daughter. At his daughter’s apartment, he does not tell her of his diagnosis, instead hands her letters written by his wife, her mother. She reads them. He learns that his daughter and her lover have sold his apartment for demolition without telling him.
The boy is trying to leave Greece but the way to Albania is not exactly an easy one, Alexander sees at the snowy mountain border an eerie barbed wire fence with what seem to be bodies stuck to it. As the pair wait for the gate to open, they have a change of mind about crossing, when the boy admits has been lying about his life in Albania. The two of them barely escape a border sentry who chases them and make it back to Alexander's automobile.
The boy’s perilous existence brings Alexander out of his stupor and self-pity, and seemingly re-energizes him in his love for a dead 19th century Greek poet, Dionysios Solomos (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), whose poem he longs to finish.
The old poet and the boy are connected by fear. The former over what lies ahead, and if his life has had impact, and the latter over what lies ahead in his — especially a perilous return trip to Albania where, as he explains to Alexander, the path over the mountains is lined with land mines, as well as men who kidnap street boys to sell them for black market adopters (as well as possibly the sex trade).
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