| Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow | |||
| Native Name: |
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| Director: | Theo Angelopoulos | ||
| Producer: | Nikos Sekeris[1] | ||
| Screenplay: | Theo Angelopoulos Tonino Guerra Petros Markaris Giorgio Silvagni | ||
| Music: | Eleni Karaindrou[2] | ||
| Cinematography: | Andreas Sinanos[3] | ||
| Editing: | Yorgos Triantafyllou | ||
| Runtime: | 169 minutes[4] [5] | ||
| Country: | Greece | ||
| Language: | Greek | ||
| Gross: | $64,424[6] [7] | ||
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (Greek: Τριλογία: Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει) is a 2004 Greek historical drama film written[4] and directed by Theo Angelopoulos.[5] [8] It stars Alexandra Aidini, Thalia Argyriou, Giorgos Armenis, Vasilis Kolovos and Nikos Poursanidis,[4] and was released during the 2004 Berlin International Film Festival on 11 February 2004.[1]
It is the first film of a projected trilogy about recent events in Greek history.[9] Followed in 2008 with The Dust of Time, the trilogy was ultimately left incomplete after Angelopoulos' unexpected death in January 2012.[9]
The film revives themes of Angelopoulos' 1975 film The Travelling Players,[10] and its events span from 1919 to the aftermath of World War II.[11] It tells the story of Greek history through the sufferings of one family.[2] A band of refugees that returns to Greece after the Russian Revolution adopts an orphaned girl, Eleni (Alexandra Aidini).[4] Eleni becomes the focus of the story.[2] The film follows her through adolescence and the marriage to her musician adopted-brother Alexis (Nikos Poursanidis).[4] Eleni becomes pregnant by Alexis,[2] and bears twin boys, who are sent away at birth.[2] 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.[2] Their lives are then ripped apart by World War II and the ensuing Greek Civil War.[4]
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow received generally favorable reviews from critics. At Metacritic it holds a 73/100 score based on 12 reviews.[12] At Rotten Tomatoes it has a 67% score based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10.[13] 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."[10] Dana Stevens of The New York Times: "The Weeping Meadow is a beautiful and devastating meditation on war, history and loss."[2] 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."[1]