To teleftaio psemma

In preparation for a trip to Greece I've been renting all the Greek movies I can find, (alas, it's only a handful) but luckily in Santa Fe we have a wonderful foreign film video rental place that happened to have this film. Usually I try and keep my expectations low but I was pleasantly surprised to discover this black and white gem and more particularly the beautiful Elli Lambeti. She's Audrey Hepburn's tragic Greek shadow. Cacoyannis' political pretensions aside (some have indicated the movie is an indictment of the corrupt postwar middle-class)the film is riveting as human drama and Lambeti shines as a young woman torn between her loyalty to her parents and her deeper commitment to the truth. Alas, Lambeti made far too few films before her death in 1983. Based on this film alone her achievement is solid. A great actress.