Smyrni mou agapimeni

"Smyrna," "Smyrna, My Beloved," also known as "Smyrna, Agapimeni Mou" commemorates the 100th anniversary of the destruction of Smyrna.

A century after the catastrophe of Smyrna comes to life a moving drama about a Greek woman whose family diary recounts the 1922 burning of the cosmopolitan city of Smyrna where Greeks, Armenians, Arabs, Jews, and Turks once lived together harmoniously.

The legendary actress Mimi Denissi is the creative force behind the masterpiece. The film is based on her play, which ran in Athens for an astonishing three seasons and was seen by more than one million viewers. She co-wrote the script and stars in the film.

As someone with roots from Smyrna, this movie shares so many common stories with those that my ancestors have passed down for generations about the atrocities that happened 100 year ago. The film was made with stunning imagery and remarkable historical accuracy.

This movie creates a lot of emotion. It kept us on our toes. It has an historical aspect to it from multiple points of view (English, Greek, American, Ottoman and Turkish), which the production does a great job of including. I am separating the Ottoman point of view from Turkish one, since Ottomans then included Greeks, Armenians, Turks, Kurds and Jews, and their point of view was completely different than all the rest as depicted in the movie (like Halil's dad and Dimitris' brother).

Nationalism is bad everywhere and atrocities did happen.

Acting was pretty good with the exception of Mimi Denisi whose acting towards the end was kind of flat.

This movie's narrative is similar to the stories my displaced grandparents would tell. My family even has the deeds of land from Smyrna. I would advise some history reading for the nationalist haters out there. A quick search would show Izmir's history. Izmir/Smyrna had a huge Greek population since its founding (2500 years ago) up to 1922. Please note to the Nationalists that this is a movie.

I have never seen any historically accurate film before. I think Mimi Denissi wrote an excellent scenario with a brilliant cast. Cruel and touching.

The violence that took place in Smyrna in 1922, in reality, was much more horrific than what the film shows us.this is what those who experienced the events at that time say. These stories have been passed down to the next generations and we must not forget them. After all, there are also photos of the uprooting of the Greeks who lived in Asia. No one can dispute that.

Great job Mrs. Denissi! This movie must be watched by all over the world. They must know about these. Don't hear the turkish propaganda.

I am in this! So I can't review it. I loved the script- co written with Martin Sherman.

This film adapted from the hugely successful stage play by Mimi Denissou.

Couldn't fly out to Athens for the premiere Dec23 because of Covid restrictions.

I loved the crew.- multi lingual most of them. Thanks be.

This is a great, very well-done movie for those who are interested in this dark moment of the city. Notwithstanding the details of the fictional characters, the historical portrayal of what happened is pretty accurate: the abandonment of the Greek army by the Allied forces and the support, instead, of the Turks (who were fighting against them in WWI); the political and civil strife within the Greek mainland; the peaceful (for the most part) cohabitation of all ethnic groups before the start of the war; the destruction inflicted on the local population by the Greek army as they were advancing inland; the purposeful setting of fire by Turks (even American witnesses have written about this); the unacceptable and horrifying refusal of all third countries (including Western powers to help the Greek population that was cornered in the seafront; the massacre, rape, and other atrocities perpetrated against Greek and Armenian residents by militia group of Turks as well as the looting and destruction of properties before the Turkish army intervened.