Days of '36

Days of '36
DVD cover
Μέρες του ’36
Directed by	Theo Angelopoulos
Produced by	Giorgos Papalios
Written by	Theo Angelopoulos Petros Markaris Stratis Karras Thanassis Valtinos
Starring	Kostas Pavlou: Sofianos Thanos Grammenos Giorgos Kyritsis Petros Zarkadis Christoforos Neezer Toula Stathopoulou Christos Kalavrouzos Vasilis Tsaglos Giannis Kandilas Petros Hoidas Takis Doukatos Petros Markaris Kostas Sfikas Christoforos Himaras Vangelis Kazan Alekos Boubis Giorgos Tzifos Kaiti Ibrohori Yannis Smaragdis Thanassis Valtinos Lambros Papadimitrakis Titika Vlahopoulou Yanka Avayianou Kiriakos Katrivanos Panos Kokkinopoulos Kostas Mandilas
Music by	Giorgos Papastephanou
Cinematography	Giorgos Arvanitis Vasilis Hristomoglou
Edited by	Vasilis Syropoulos
Production company	Papalios Productions
Distributed by	Trigon-film
Release date	20 September 1972 (20 September 1972) (Thessaloniki Festival of Greek Cinema)
Running time	105 Minutes
Country	Greece
Language	Greek

Days of '36 (Greek: Μέρες του '36, tr. Méres tou '36) is a 1972 Greek dramatic independent underground art film directed by Theo Angelopoulos. Its title is a tribute to Constantine P. Cavafy.

Filmed in the Regime of the Colonels, the film dares to draw a parallel between this dictatorship and that of Ioannis Metaxas, but does so implicitly to escape censorship. Angelopoulos speaks of an "aesthetic of the unspoken." He points out that the most important things always happen out of the field, behind closed doors or on the phone. When something is said, it is only whispered.

Synopsis

In May 1936, in a Greece shaken by many political attacks, a trade union leader was assassinated. Sofianos, a minor offender and smuggler as well as a police informant and agent provocateur in the demonstrations of the left is accused of the murder. Kept incommunicado in a room separate from the other detainees, his only two visitors are a member of parliament of the Conservative Party and his driver, who is also Sofianos' brother. One day, Sofianos takes the member of parliament as a hostage inside his cell to obtain his release before midnight, without knowing how he obtained the revolver which he was using; outside, the guards are powerless, while the prison director is under pressure from his supervising minister and the political parties, sometimes opposed, to rapidly find a solution.

Sofianos's lawyer tries to bring him back to reason, explaining to his client that the weapon in his possession is a trap that has been setup for him, and that by taking the deputy as a hostage he is playing the game of those who accuse him. The lawyer conducts an investigation to exonerate Sofianos but ends up being beaten up in a deserted street.

In parallel, an escape attempt takes place in the prison, but three escapees are caught up in the countryside.

Under the pressure of an Anglo-Saxon political-economic group, the political and prison authorities are trying to put an end to the hostage-taking by various means, including the poisoning of the prisoner. Eventually, at nightfall, a sniper shoots Sofianos in his cell.

The next morning, the three escapees were shot and the body of Sofianos was added to the funeral truck.

Technical information

• Title: Days of '36
• Original title: Μέρες του '36 (tr. Méres tou '36)
• Director: Theo Angelopoulos
• Screenplay: Theo Angelopoulos, Petros Markaris, Stratis Karras and Thanassis Valtinos
• Cinematography: Giorgos Arvanitis
• Production Design/Costume Design: Mikes Karapiperis
• Music: Giorgos Papastephanou
• Editing: Vassilis Syropoulos
• Production Manager: Giorgos Samiotis
• Country: Greece
• Format: Color – Mono – 35 mm
• Genre: Drama
• Duration: 105 Minutes
• Release date: 20 September 1972 (Thessaloniki Festival of Greek Cinema)

Cast

• Kostas Pavlou: Sofianos
• Thanos Grammenos: Sofianos' Brother/Kriezis's Driver
• Giorgos Kyritsis: Kontaxis
• Petros Zarkadis: Sofianos' Accomplice
• Christoforos Neezer: Prison Director
• Toula Stathopoulou: Prostitute
• Christos Kalavrouzos: Second Trade Unionist
• Vasilis Tsaglos: Prison Guard
• Giannis Kandilas: Minister Kriezis/Hostage
• Petros Hoidas: Prosecutor
• Takis Doukatos: Police Chief
• Petros Markaris: Murdered Trade Unionist
• Kostas Sfikas: Prosecutor's Assistant
• Christoforos Himaras: Minister
• Vangelis Kazan
• Alekos Boubis
• Giorgos Tzifos
• Kaiti Ibrohori
• Yannis Smaragdis
• Thanassis Valtinos
• Lambros Papadimitrakis
• Titika Vlahopoulou
• Yanka Avayianou
• Kiriakos Katrivanos
• Panos Kokkinopoulos
• Kostas Mandilas

Awards

It was awarded Best Director and Best Picture at the Thessaloniki Festival of Greek Cinema in 1972. At the Berlin International Film Festival in 1973, it received a prize from the International Federation of Film Critics.

Bibliography

• Michel Demopoulos, directeur de publication, Le Cinéma grec [Greek Cinema], Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, collection «cinéma/pluriel,» 1995, 263 pages, ISBN 2858508135. (in French)
• Vrasidas Karalis, A History of Greek Cinema, New York, New York and London, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2012, 344 pages, ISBN 978-1-4411-9447-3.
• Sylvie Rollet, directeur de publication (préface: Theo Angelopoulos), Théorème 9: Théo Angelopoulos au fil du temps [Theo Angelopoulos over the Course of Time], Paris, Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2007, 189 pages, ISBN 978-2-87854-372-8. (in French)
• Stéphane Sawas, «Grèce (1967–1974) – Les écrans grecs sous la dictature des colonels: la grande rupture,» [Greece (1967–1974) – Greek Screens Under the Dictatorship of the Colonels: The Great Break] dans Raphaël Muller et Thomas Wieder, directeurs de publication, Cinéma et régimes autoritaires au xxe siècle: Écrans sous influence [Cinema and Authoritarian Regimes in the Twentieth Century: Screens Under Influence], Paris, Éditions École Normale Supérieure rue d'Ulm et Presses Universitaires de France, collection «Les rencontres de Normale Sup',» 2008, 285 pages, ISBN 978-2-13-055749-4. (in French)
• Stéphane Sawas, «Entre amnésie collective et mémoire retrouvée: La guerre civile grecque au cinéma,» [Between Collective Amnesia and Rediscovered Memory: The Greek Civil War in Cinema] dans Carola Hähnel-Mesnard, Marie Liénard-Yeterian, et Cristina Marinas, directeurs de publication, Culture et mémoire: Représentations contemporaines de la mémoire dans les espaces mémoriels, les arts du visuel, la littérature et le théâtre [Culture and Memory: Contemporary Representations of Memory in Memorial Spaces, Visual Arts, Literature and Theater], Paris, Éditions de l'École Polytechnique et Éditions Ellipses, 2008, 534 pages, ISBN 978-2-7302-1492-6. (in French)

External links

• Days of '36 on IMDb
• Days of '36 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Days of '36 at AllMovie
• Days of '36 at the TCM Movie Database