Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow
| Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Τριλογία: Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει |
| Directed by | Theo Angelopoulos |
| Produced by | Nikos Sekeris |
| Written by | Theo Angelopoulos |
| Screenplay by | Theo Angelopoulos Tonino Guerra Petros Markaris Giorgio Silvagni |
| Starring | Alexandra Aidini Thalia Argyriou Giorgos Armenis |
| Music by | Eleni Karaindrou |
| Cinematography | Andreas Sinanos |
| Edited by | Yorgos Triantafyllou |
| Distributed by | Celluloid Dreams |
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Release date
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Running time
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169 minutes |
| Language | Greek |
| Box office | $25 thousand |
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (Greek: Τριλογία: Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει) is an award-winning 2004 Greek romantic historical drama film, written and directed by Theo Angelopoulos. It stars Alexandra Aidini, Thalia Argyriou, Giorgos Armenis, Vasilis Kolovos and Nikos Poursanidis, and was released during the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival, on 11 February 2004. It is the first film of a projected trilogy about recent events in Greek history.The Dust of Time (2008) is the second film of the trilogy. In January 2012, Angelopoulos died unexpectedly, leaving the trilogy uncompleted.
The film revives themes of Angelopoulos' 1975 film The Travelling Players, and its events span from 1919 to the aftermath of World War II. It tells the story of Greek history through the sufferings of one family. A band of refugees that returns to Greece after the Russian Revolution adopts an orphaned girl, Eleni (Alexandra Aidini). Eleni becomes the focus of the story. The film follows her through adolescence and the marriage to her musician half-brother Alexis (Nikos Poursanidis). Eleni becomes pregnant by Alexis, and bears twin boys, who are sent away at birth. Many years later she is forced to marry her widowed adopted father. On her wedding day, Eleni escapes with Alexis to Thessaloniki, where they reunite with their sons. Their lives are then ripped apart by World War II and the ensuing Greek Civil War.
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow received generally favorable reviews from critics. At Metacritic it holds a 73/100 score based on 12 reviews. At Rotten Tomatoes it has a 65% score based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10.Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars, and commented: "The movie is fiercely austere; no human emotion leaks out and the characters are as blank as chess-pieces."Dana Stevens of The New York Times: "The Weeping Meadow is a beautiful and devastating meditation on war, history and loss."Derek Elley of Variety: "The movie plays like a career summation in which the 68-year-old writer-director has simply run out new ideas."
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