Evdokia

Director: Alexis Damianos
Cast: Maria Vassiliou, Giorgos Koutouzis, Koula Agagiotou, Hristos Zorbas, Eleni Roda
Greece, 1971, DCP, 86’, color
Greek with Turkish and English subtitles 

A drama of passion where the main characters are a sergeant and a prostitute who get married after a brief passionate idyll. Very soon, however, the influence of their environment has a negative impact on their relationship, and the man tries to break away but without success. The harsh light, the rock, the bare landscape and the military exercise, on the one hand, sensuality and constrictions, on the other. Because of her occupation, Evdokia both attracts and repels the sergeant.

The petit bourgeois environment, the lumpen elements, the social fringes and petty interests stifle the young couple, which appears to want to rebel, but doesn’t succeed. With everything moving between violent sensuality, cruelty, coarseness and total austerity, this “prosaic” story assumes the dimensions of an ancient tragedy. The inner struggle of the heroes, the conflict of desires and values, the straight- forward narration, vigorous pace, immediacy and sound construction constitute one of the most important works of Greek cinema.