I earini synaxis ton agrofylakon

You don't like violin music? So do I. But after seeing this film you will be running to the next record shop and buy Vivaldi's four seasons. You think nearly three hours is too long? You will enjoy every minute. You think the Greek original with subtitles might be annoying? It makes it even better.

The setting, the music (which seems to be composed by Vivaldi only for this film), the cast, everything is perfect. Starting with summer, music and the Greek hills provide a wonderful surrounding for a very simple story: four men, one after another, fail to guard the fields in the hills surrounding a small town. The times of the field guards are of course also long gone in Greece, but the film succeeds in bringing back that time. Rural life is portrayed in a way which is of course a bit romantic, but not only the qualities of the people are shown, also their faults and vices. This film is rather a big museum with many stills you would like to look at again and again because they give you such a good feeling.

Undoubtedly this film will never be shown again in the cinemas (I was only able to watch in during the Berlinale festival) but wow, what a loss.