Athens

Following his cinematic exploration of the countryside and the open wounds etched in Greek history, Theodoros Angelopoulos returns to his hometown and to the documentary genre, adopting the film form of a poetic diary. Implementing soundtracks from his previous films as well as modern Greek poetry, painting, and music, he crafts the portrait of a different Athens, one trying to find an equilibrium between past and present through a perpetual process of reconstruction. The filmmaker traces the origins of his personal myth in a city that is just beginning to take its first tentative steps towards globalization as the designated European Capital of Culture in 1985.

This was the Greek contribution in the television series Cultural Capitals of Europe (1983-), in which nine figures offer us a personal guided tour through their own city.