Maria Kyriaki

This highly acclaimed drama from Greek writer/director Sotiris Goritsas, inspired by the Sotiris Dimitriou short story, represented Greece as an official selection for the 1994 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight. It concerns two young Greek men seeking refuge in Albania. Thomas (Vassilis Eleftheriadis) and Achilleas (Ierassimos Skiadaeressis) make an illegal late-night run at the Greek border, joined by young Nikos (Antonis Manolas), a child whose mother had been killed by Albanian guards. Returning to Athens, they find that the land they had missed and dreamed of so often has changed, refusing to accept the returning refugees or even see them as Greek -- the locals refer to the trio as "Albanians" throughout the film. Demoralized and disillusioned, Thomas is accidentally killed while working at a building site to make ends meet, and Achilleas and Nikos decide to return to their Albanian village rather than stay in an Athens, which clearly has no place for them anymore.

Centres on two brothers, Stelios and Yannis. The impulsive Stelios skips their small town, deserts from the army, and is thought dead, until Yannis, now a city cop, recognizes his name on the papers of an illegal immigrant seaman. He begins a search for his lost brother, a search that takes him across many borders: between past and present, between Greece and its neighbouring countries, between one identity and another.

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