This may be the best adaptation of an ancient Greek play ever done. Set on the eve of the Trojan war, the Greek army is becalmed and the gods require a blood sacrifice before the winds will come. The priest declares it must be the daughter of Agamemnon, Iphigenia.
Filmed on location...not glamorized at all...the focus is on the intense human drama. Larger issues hover over the story (religion, war, revenge, greed, pride) but the atrocity of a young girl being murdered at the will of her father trumps all. IP is brilliant as Clytemnestra...perhaps her finest performance. She radiates strength, pain, despair, anguish. Tatiana Papamoschou also excels as the virginal victim.
By humanizing the story Cocayannis brings its impact from the head of the viewer into the heart and gives it a resonance seldom seen in a classic.
A great film.
9
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