Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow

A group of displaced Greeks from Odessa arrives in a marshland crisscrossed by a river and begins building a new settlement. One family dominates: a strict, unyielding father who, after his wife’s death, decides to marry Eleni – a young girl the family took in during their chaotic flight. But the marriage never happens. Eleni elopes with his son, her childhood love. Their journey through Greece, under the protection of a troupe of musicians, becomes a tragic odyssey. Political turmoil forces them to face a string of events that leave permanent scars. Cursed by the father for their betrayal, the son emigrates to America in search of a better life. Eleni, left behind, endures war, civil strife, the loss of her two children, and repeated imprisonments for resistance activity, before finally being exiled from the land she once believed to be her homeland.

The script of The Weeping Meadow was inspired by the death of Theo Angelopoulos' mother in 1998, a woman whose life spanned the major historical events of the 20th century. This film is the first installment of the "Trilogy of Modern Greece," a project that remained unfinished following the director's tragic death during the filming of The Other Sea (unfinished). It marked the cinematic debut of Alexandra Aidini and the final performance of Toula Stathopoulou. For the production, an entire village was constructed from scratch at Lake Kerkini, while refugee camps were built in Thessaloniki; additional filming took place in Florina. Angelopoulos would wait for days or even weeks in Thessaloniki to capture the "right weather": the humidity, the drizzle, and above all, the mist of the Thermaic Gulf, which serves as a trademark of his cinematic language. The film sold 38.810 tickets, ranking 5th among 16 Greek productions of that season.