Alex Moukanos
A corpse symbolically placed on the border line of the bridge that connects Greece with Turkey, forces the Greek police officer Sofia Bakalis and the Turkish Kenan Karaman to undertake the case of the unusual murder. Very quickly, the two police officers realize that things are not so simple. Unsuspecting of the political forces involved and trying to solve the case, Sophia and Kenan will be in mortal danger, as the perpetrators do everything to hide an explosive secret. However, the price of the truth is much higher than they imagine, with its revelation threatening to lead even to a Greek-Turkish conflict. In the end, Sophia and Kenan will be asked to decide what matters most: their task or their life.
This is the first film of Theo Angelopoulos' trilogy. The story starts in 1919 with some greek refugees from Odessa arriving somewhere near Thessaloniki. Among these people are two small kids, Alexis and Eleni. Eleni is an orphan and she is also taken care by Alexis' family. The refugees build a small village somewhere near a river and we watch as the kids grow up and fall in love. But difficult times of dictatorship and war are coming...
Nicolas is a shepherd. He is around twenty years old, thin and spirited. Constantina is eighteen years old. Constantina fell in love with Nikolas the very first time she saw him with his lyre at the bull sacrifice ritual. She entered the whirlpool of ecstasy and became his lover. Their relationship was clearly physical, all other things were setting them apart. Constantina decides that they should break up. "We come from different places and head in different directions", she says. When she finds out that she is pregnant, she does not tell Nikolas.
