"Alexandre, are you coming?" "We're going to the island." " Where?" " To the island." "We're going to dive to see the ancient city." "Later, we'll go up to the rock... and we'll greet the passing boats." "What do you know of the ancient city?" "Grandfather says that that happy city was swallowed by an earthquake... and that it has slept under the sea for centuries." "It comes out of the water once a month and for very a short time... when the morning star regrets to have to leave the Earth... and stops and contemplates it." "And all stops then..." "Time also stops." "Time... what is it?" "Grandfather says that time is a child... that plays dice on the shore." "Are you coming then?" "ETERNITY AND A DAY" "Alexandre!" "You fell asleep there..." "And you haven't eaten anything!" "I have a taste of salt..." "the taste of the sea in my mouth." "So, this is our last day..." "Let me come with you, tomorrow, to the hospital." "Ourania, don't make things harder..." "After all, doesn't everything end sooner or later?" "Coffee is served in the office..." "I've also packed your suitcase." "It's not too full, I hope." "It's useless..." "You know it well." "Ourania..." "Thanks for the 3 years that you spent here." "Without you, I don't know what I would have become." "The dog has eaten." "For the last few months my only contact with the world" "has been this unknown neighbour of mine, who always answers to me with the same music." "Who are they?" "What are they like?" "One morning, I wanted to go and meet them, but then I changed my mind." "Maybe it's better not to meet them and imagine them." "Will it be a hermit like me?" "Or perhaps a little girl before leaving to school" "plays with the unknown neighbour." "All passed by so quickly!" "This suspect pain... my stubbornness to want to learn, to want to know... then the darkness... the silence around me... the silence." "All made me believe that before the end of winter with the ethereal silhouettes of the boats, and their sudden breakthroughs in the sky," "with the lovers along the promenade, in the declining sun, and the hypocritical promise of the spring," "all made me believe that before the end of winter..." "My only regret, Anna..." " but is it only one?" " ...is not to have finished anything." "I left all as a draft, shattered words here and there." "Get on!" "Where do you come from?" "Do you speak Greek?" "Do you want me to take you somewhere?" "Hello dad." "What brings you here on Sunday?" "No one answers at yours." "I've called for 15 days." "I was worried." "What happened?" "I must leave for a while." "I don't know where to leave the dog, Katérina." "Do you want to drink something?" " There's some coffee..." " I've also brought you" " some of your mother's old letters." " My mother's letters?" "You're leaving, you said?" "Where are you going?" "You know that Nikos doesn't want animals in the house." "And your work, how is it going?" "My work?" "On "The Free Besieged" of Solomos." "Your third project, you left it incomplete after mom's death." "Isn't it what you were working on?" "Besides, I've never understood how come that a great writer like you abandoned his work all of a sudden... to finish an incomplete 19th century poem." "Don't tell me that you've dropped it too!" "I don't know, maybe I couldn't find the words..." "This one has no envelope." "Why?" "Shall I read it?" ""September 20th, 1966"." "My day!" "Mom often spoke to me of that day." ""You were still sleeping when I woke up." ""I watched you breathe." ""Were you dreaming, Alexandre?" ""You moved your hand slightly as to look for me." ""Your eyelids blinked, then you dove back into sleep." ""A little tear came from your eye." ""it rolled, it travelled." ""From aside, the baby uttered a little moan." ""A door moved." ""I went to the veranda" ""and cried."" "Hello Anna." "I'm having strange dreams, in these days." " Did you cry, Anna?" " That's nothing." "You cried." "It's nothing." "What's wrong?" " Anna, you cried." " It's nothing." "So?" " How do I look?" " As beautiful as a summer day!" "Liar!" "And the overweight due to my pregnancy?" "Is that dress new?" " Don't you remember?" " No." "You brought it to me from one of your journeys." "You only think about your book!" "When will you send it to the editor, so we can stay together?" ""..." "I wish I could keep that moment" ""pin it up like a butterfly to prevent it from flying."" "They're coming!" "Go to dress!" "Quickly!" "Go to dress!" ""I'm writing to you in front of the sea, motionless, stunned." ""In the house you can feel the hot milk and the humid jasmine." ""I write to you, I speak to you..." ""I feel so close to you," ""who feel threatened and resist me." ""Do you think that I threaten your world, Alexandre?" ""Yet, I am only a woman in love."" "Is the little one sleeping?" "She's with her other grandmother, on the beach." "Grandmother..." "Like me!" "My God, how old have I grown?" "See, my daughter, by playing the part of the naive all the time, your mother got naive." "She always plays the naive..." "Hecuba, Clytemnestra..." "My wife always loves to exaggerate." "Dad, stop teasing her all the time!" " How will you call her?" " Did you decide it?" "Eléni or Katérina..." "But her grandmother will have the last word!" "You shine, you know." "My little Anna a mom!" "I am going to put the flowers in a vase." "As far as I remember, the house hasn't changed." "This will be the last careless summer, Alékos!" "What do you mean?" "Everybody speaks of an intervention of the army before the elections, but you politicians, you play dumb!" ""At night, I looked at you." ""I didn't know if you were sleeping or quiet." ""I was afraid of what you could think," ""afraid of invading your silence." ""So I let my body speak," ""- the only language I know " ""because only that way you don't feel threatened." ""I am only a woman in love, Alexandre."" "And where's the lucky father hiding?" "Plunged in is thoughts, uncle, as always." "He's there without being there." "As children we had to speak in a low voice when he was working." "Father got angry when someone disturbed his beloved son!" "And now, if you want to see the little wonder, follow me!" "She's beautiful, isn't she?" ""I walked naked on the sand." ""The wind blew," ""a boat passed by." ""You weren't getting up." ""I could still feel your heat on my body." ""I didn't dare dream that you were dreaming of me!" ""Oh!" "Alexandre..." ""If I could have believed it only for an instant," ""I would have let myself go and a scream."" "Did you say something, dad?" "Are you already leaving?" "I had not understood..." "Hello." "I'm glad you came, I wanted to speak with you." "You know, we sold the house on the beach." "The house?" "..." "You sold it?" "Tomorrow morning, I'll give them the keys and the bulldozer will start working." "Is that your dog?" "I am going to dress." "Don't take it so much to heart, dad!" "What's wrong with you?" "You look so pale." "Do you remember our first journey?" "Maybe you were fifteen." "The two of us in Yannina for that damn tennis championship!" "You lost and you started crying." "We had no choice, father..." "Only two people, Nikos and me, in that immense house... damaged by the earthquake and surrounded by buildings." "We walked hand in hand along the banks of the lake." "I tried everything... you were inconsolable!" "A glass of water, please, and a sandwich." "I have a clandestine kid on board..." "So what?" "A little refugee from Albania..." "of Greek origin apparently." "So what?" "How long does it take from here to the Albanian border?" "2 hours..." "Maybe more if it snows." "You need to cross the mountain." "Why don't you ask that bus-driver?" "He's going to Pentalofo in the north, not far from the border." "He ran away!" "They do it all the time!" "The cops keep catching them and send them back home..." "All in vain!" "They keep crossing the mountains." "How did you come to Greece?" "Don't you want to tell me?" "Is your village far from the border?" " Do you have a family over there?" " My grandmother." "That bus goes to Pentalofo, close to the border." "I could not leave you there after all that." "Do you understand?" "I'm leaving on a journey tomorrow." "I don't have the time..." "Once there, the driver will find you a taxi to get to the border." "Don't you want to go to your grandmother's?" "# Little exiled bird # and unhappy # a foreign country is happy to have you # and I long for you" "# What can I send you my little flower?" "#" "Did you say "my little flower"?" "Repeat..." "What did you say?" "The song..." "Say it again!" "I could not leave you like that." "I had to find a solution." "I know what you want, but I can't leave you like that!" "I just can't!" "Hello." "A glass of water." "Where can I find a taxi to take the child to the border?" "It won't be easy to find, the road is terrible." "My son-in-law has a taxi." "Shall I call him?" "Yes." "He'll be here in 10 minutes." "Giorgos, 4 rakis and something to eat!" "# If I send you an apple, it'll rot" "# If I send you a quince it'll dry" "# a bunch of white grapes will lose its beads along the way" "# I'll send you a tear in a... #" "What's wrong?" "You're trembling!" "Were you afraid of the police?" "No." "It's yours." "Remember those words, on the motorway..." ""korphoula mou"?" "Do you know what a poet is?" "If I had the time, I would tell to you the story of a poet... who used to buy words." "I understand." "Let's go." "You are going to freeze..." "Let's go." "The armed gangs came down to the streets." "The men shot all night." "They entered the houses," "the babies cried..." "The empty village..." "The passage is up there." "My buddy Sélim knew it, he had already crossed it." "There are a few signs left by some grown-ups, some plastic bags hanging from the trees." "If you don't know it, you get lost." "The snow eats you up." "From a bag to another, you arrive to a bare plateau." "Sélim started screaming... because I didn't know it and started walking." ""There are hidden bombs there, bonehead! " - he tells me." ""Get down! "" "I did." "He took a big stone... and threw it in front of him then he crouched down before it fell on the snow." "Nothing happened, so we advanced up to the stone." "He had me crouch down, took the stone... and threw it farther." "I was afraid, I was cold..." "We started walking again." "And that way, throwing the stone, we reached the other side." "We saw the lights far away." "I don't have anybody." "I lied." "I have to leave tomorrow, I told you." "You've fooled me again!" "A sandwich, please!" "Thank you." "Don't you ever eat?" "Sometimes." " I know what a poet is." " Do you?" "I see..." "Once there was a poet, last century." "A great poet." "He was Greek... but he grew up and lived in Italy." "One day, he learned that the Greek... who were under the Ottoman, had put on their weapons to conquer back their freedom." "Then inside he felt his lost country, the years of his childhood on the island," "his mother's face who still lived there, wake up inside." "He had no peace anymore." "He walked and was delirious." "Every night, he dreamt of his mother in her bridal white dress, who called him." "I made up my mind!" "I'm leaving for Greece." "I cannot stay here." "After so many centuries, the Greek put on their weapons." "What can a poet do?" "Sing the revolution, cry over the dead invoke the lost face of freedom." "The following day, he took a boat in Venice and went back to Greece, in Zante... his island." "He recognised the faces, the colours, the perfumes... his house... but he didn't know the language." "He wanted to sing the revolution, but he couldn't speak his mother's language." "Then he started going through the popular districts... the fields, the fishermen's villages, noting the words that he heard," "and paying for those that he heard for the first time." "The news spread everywhere." ""The poet buys words! "" "From then on, wherever he went, the poor of all the island gathered, old and young and seized him to sell him words." "Abyss..." "Fragrant..." "Dew..." "Stream..." "Nightingales..." "Sky..." "Wave..." "Lake..." "Unknown..." "Embalm..." "Most light..." "Most light..." "Tell me, last night, what did you see?" "A night enamelled with prodigies." "a night full of magic." "Most..." "light." "And so he wrote his" Hymn to liberty"." "Of course, he also wrote other poems... among which a very long, incomplete one that he called "The Free Besieged"." "He spent the rest of his life trying to finish it." "But he never did." "He lacked some words." "I brought the dog, Ourania." "I didn't have anywhere to leave him." "My son is getting married." "Forgive me, I didn't want to spoil your feast." "I don't know where to leave him." "I am sorry..." "Let me come with you tomorrow." "The bride is beautiful!" "You know, my daughter and her husband sold the house on the beach." "I wish I..." "I think he's hungry." "Coming, Alexander?" "We're going to the island." " Where?" " To the island." "We'll go diving to take a look at the ancient city." "Then we'll go up the cliff and shout to the ships going by." "What do you know about the ancient city?" "Grandfather says it was a happy city... lt was sunk by an earthquake... and sleeps at the bottom of the sea... for centuries now." "It comes out of the water evey once in a while... just for a moment... when the morning star is homesick for the earrth... and stops to look." "Then everything stops and Time stops." "What's Time?" "Grandfather says it's a child playing jacks on the beach." "Are you coming?" "Eternity and a Day" "a film by Theo Angelopoulos" "Alexander!" "You fell asleep here?" "And you haven't touched your food..." "There's a taste of salt..." "of the sea... in my mouth..." "So... my last day..." "Let me come with you to the hospital tomorrow." "Come now, Urania, let's not make things harder." "Besides, isn't this how eveyrything ends?" "Your coffee is in the study... and I've packed your bag." "I hope you haven't packed too much." "I won't be needing it." "You know that." "Urania!" "Thank you for these three years cooped up in here." "Without you I don't know what would have become of me." "I fed the dog." "Lately... my only contact with the world... is this stranger opposite... who answers me with the same music." "Who is he?" "What's he like?" "One morning I set out to find him." "But I changed my mind." "It's better not to know..." "and to imagine." "A loner like me..." "Maybe it's a little girl... dabbling with the Unknown... before leaving for school." "Eveyrything happened so fast!" "The suspicious pain... my persistence in wanting to find out... to know..." "And then the darkness..." "The silence around me..." "The silence..." "Eveyrything seemed to say that before the winter was over... with the ethereal silhouettes of the ships... outlined against a sudden break in the clouds... lovers strolling on the waterfront at sunset... and the deceptive promise of spring..." "eveyrything seemed to say that before the winter was over..." "My only regret, Anna..." "is it my only regret?" "... ls that I never finished anything." "My plans remained just that... words scattered here and there..." "Get in!" "Where are you from?" "Do you speak Greek?" "Can I take you somewhere?" "Hello, Dad!" "What brings you here on a Sunday?" "You haven't been answering your phone for two weeks now." "I was worried." "What's up?" "I'll be going away for a little while... and I've nowhere to leave the dog, Katerina." "Would you like something to drink?" "There's coffee... I also brought you these... some old letters of your mother's..." "Mother's letters?" "Going away, you said?" "Where to?" "You know Nikos doesn't want animals in the house." "How's your work coming along?" " My work?" " On Solomos"'Free Besieged"... the unfinished third draft of the poem... lsn't that what you've been working on since mother died?" "Though I never understood why a writer with your reputation.." "would suddenly drop eveyrything... to complete an unfinished 19th centuy poem..." "Don't tell me you've abandoned the whole thing?" "I don't know..." "Perhaps I couldn't find the words..." "This one doesn't have an envelope." "Why?" "Shall I open it?" "20 September, 1966." "That was my day!" "Mother often talked about that day." "You were still asleep when I woke up... I looked at you lying next to me, breathing..." "Were you dreaming, Alexander?" "Your hand moved a little as though searching for me..." "Your eyelids fluttered and then you sank back into sleep." "A bead of perspiration between your eyes rolled down... and travelled on..." "The baby next to us whimpered softly..." "A door creaked... I went out on the porch... and cried." "Good morning, Anna." "I've been having strange dreams lately." " You've been cying, Anna!" " It's nothing!" " You've been cying!" " It's nothing." "What's wrong?" " Anna, you've been cying!" " It's nothing!" "Well?" "How do I look?" " As lovely as a summer day!" " Liar!" "I still haven't lost the weight l put on during pregnancy." "is that a new dress?" " Don't you remember it?" " l don't remember..." "You brought it from one of your trips." "All you think about is your book." "When will you give it to the publisher... so we can see a little of each other?" "If only I could hold on to this moment!" "If I could pin it like a butterfly... so it wouldn't fly away." "They're here!" "They're here!" "Go and get dressed." "Hury up!" "Welcome!" " Darling!" " Mother!" "I'm writing this by the sea... lying out there as if in a trance." "The house smells of warm milk and moist jasmine." "I write to you, I talk to you... I sense I'm now so close to you that you resist." "Do I threaten your world, Alexander?" "And yet I am but a woman in love." " Is the baby asleep?" " She's with her other granny." "I'm a granny too?" "My God, am I that old?" "Just because she's still playing ingenues... your mother thinks..." "But she's also played Hecuba and Clyytemnestra..." "My wife has always been prone to extremes!" "You're always teasing her, Dad!" "Have you decided on a name?" "Eleni or Katerina." "It depends which grandmother has the last say!" "You look radiant, you know that?" "My little Anna, a mother!" "I'll go and put the flowers in water." "For as long as I can remember... this house hasn't changed at all." "Our last, carefree summer, Alekos..." "What on earrth are you talking about?" "Eveyone's saying the army will intervene before the elections." "But you politicians couldn't care less." "At night I looked at you... I didn't know if you were asleep or just silent... I was afraid of what you might be thinking... I was afraid I had intruded upon your silence," "so I began to show how vulnerable I was... in the only way I knew..." "with my body..." "Because it's only then you don't feel endangered." "I am but a woman in love Alexander..." "Where's the proud father?" "Lost in his world as always, Uncle." "Present only in the flesh." "When we were children, we had to whisper when he was working." "Father would yell at us when we disturbed his first born." "Congratulations!" "Anyone who wants to see the little beauty, follow me!" "Isn't she beautiful?" "I walked naked in the sand..." "The wind was blowing..." "A ship sailed by." "You were late waking up." "Still clothed in the warmth of your body, I didn't dare dream that you were dreaming of me." "Ah, Alexander!" "If only I could believe it, just for a moment... I'd dissolve into a cy..." "Did you say something, Dad?" "Leaving already?" "I hadn't realized..." "Good morning." "Good thing you came." "I've something to tell you..." "You know we sold the house by the sea..." "You sold the house!" "Tomorrow I hand over the keys and the wreckers move in." "is that your dog?" "I'm going to get dressed." "Don't take it so hard, Dad..." "What's wrong?" "You're so pale!" "Remember that first trip we took together?" "How old were you then... 15?" "The two of us in Yannena for that damned tennis tournament.." "You lost and burst into tears..." "What else could we have done, Dad?" "Nikos and I..." "two people in a huge house... cracked by earrthquakes, aparrtment buildings all around." "We walked hand in hand by the lake... I tried in vain... but you were inconsolable." "A glass of water, please and a sandwich... I've a young illegal alien in the car..." "A refugee from Albania..." "of Greek origin most likely..." "So?" "How far to the Albanian border?" "Two hours..." "longer if there's snow." "You have to cross the mountain." "Why don't you ask the bus driver?" "He's going norrth as far as Five-Peaks, near the border." "He's gone." "That's what they do..." "The cops round them up..." "send them back... but they only come back again over the mountains." "How did you come to Greece?" "Won't you tell me?" "is your village far from the border?" " Do you have any family?" " My grandmother." "That bus is headed for Five-Peaks, near the border." "I couldn't just leave after all that's happened." "Understand?" "I'm going away tomorrow... on a trip..." "I don't have time." "When you arrive, the driver will find you a taxi... to take you to the border." "Don't you want to go to your grandmother?" "My little exiled bird... grieving in strange places..." "Some foreign land is forrtunate to have you... while I pine for you..." "What can I send you, "korfoula"... my litle flower.." "Did you say "korfoula"..." "little flower?" "Say it again." "What you were saying..." "the song... sing it again." "I couldn't just leave you." "I had to find a way." "I know what you want!" "But I can't just leave you like this. I simply can't!" "Good morning." "A glass of water." "Where can I get a taxi to take the kid to the border?" "It'll be difficult." "The roads are bad." "My son-in-law's got a cab." "Shall I fetch him?" "Yes." "It'll be here in 10 minutes." "Giorgos!" "Four rakis and all the trimmings." "I send you an apple and it rots... I send you a quince and it shrivels... I send you white grapes... and they spoil along the way." "I send you my tears in a..." "What's the matter?" "You're trembling?" "Did the police scare you?" "No... lt's yours." "Remember that word back on the highway?" "The word "korfoula"?" "Do you know what a poet is?" "If I had time I'd tell you a stoy about a poet... who bought words." "I understand..." "Come on." "You'll freeze!" "Come!" "Armed gangs... firing all night... bursting into people's houses.." "Babies cying..." "The village emptied..." "The pass is up there..." "Selim knew it because he'd done it before." "The grownups left a trail to guide us..." "Plastic bags tied to the trees." "If you don't know, you get lost..." "The snow gets you." "From bag to bag, you come to a flat place without trees..." "Selim starrted yelling... because I didn't know and starrted to move on." "There are hidden bombs you idiot, he said." "Sit down!" "I sat." "He took a big stone... threw it ahead of us... and squatted down before it hit the snow." "Nothing happened... so we walked as far as the stone." "He pushed me down..." "He picked up the stone... and threw it ahead again." "I was scared... cold..." "We walked on... throwing the stone... and made it to the other side." "We saw some lights furrther on... I don't have anyone." "I lied." "I told you I'm going away tomorrow... on a trip." "You got your way again!" "A sandwich, please." "Thank you." "Don't you ever eat?" "Sometimes." " l know what a poet is." " Oh yes... I understand." "Once there was a poet... in the last centuy..." "A great poet..." "He was Greek... but he grew up and lived in Italy." "One day he heard that the Greeks... who were living as slaves under the Ottomans... had taken up arms..." "Then memories of his forgotten homeland... stirred inside him... his childhood on the island... the face of his mother still living there." "He could not rest... walked in a daze talking to himself..." "Evey night he would dream of his mother..." "A bride... dressed all in white... summoning him... I've made up my mind." "I'm leaving for Greece." "I can't stay here any more." "After so many centuries the Greeks have taken up arms..." "What can a poet do?" "Celebrate the revolution in song... mourn for the dead... invoke the lost face of liberrty." "The next day he took a boat from Venice... and returned to Greece..." "to Zante... his island." "He found again the faces, the colours, the smells... his family home... but he didn't know the language." "He wanted to celebrate the revolution... but he couldn't speak his mother's language." "Then he starrted roaming around the neighborhoods, the fields.." "the fishing villages... writing down the words he heard... and paying for the words he didn't know." "The news spread..." ""The poet is buying words! "" "From then on wherever he went... poor people gathered from all over the island, old and young," "crowding around to sell him words." "Abyss" "Perfumed" "Dewy" "Source" "Nightingales" "Heaven" "Waves" "Lake" "Unknown" "Redolent" "Moonstruck" ""Moonstruck."" "Oh, Moonstruck One, tell me what you saw tonight..." "A night full of wonders..." "A night sown with magic." "That's how he wrote the "Hymn to Liberrty"." "Of course he wrote other poems... and a long, unfinished poem... which he named "The Besieged Free"." "He spent the rest of his life tying to finish it." "But he ran out of time..." "He lacked the words... I brought the dog, Urania." "I had nowhere to leave it." "My son's getting married." "I'm sory. I didn't want to spoil your celebrations." "I had nowhere to leave it." "I'm sory." "Let me come with you tomorrow." "How beautiful the bride is!" "You know my daughter and Nikos sold the house by the sea." "I wanted to..." "He may be hungy..." "You're smiling but I know you're sad." "Shall I go get you some words?" "They may be expensive." " "xenitis"..." "Outsider..." " Outsider?" "An exile..." "A stranger... everywhere." "Did you just hear that word?" "The women in the village used to say it." "Shall I bring you some more?" "Where?" "On the island, Anna?" "Mother, I'm afraid the sun is too strong for you." "Lately I've been dreaming of your father." "Evey night." "How I miss him!" "He left us so soon!" "You were on one of your trips..." "My first book was coming out in France." "You never were vey close." "You always doubted him." "And that hurrt him." "But I returned immediately." "What are you two plotting?" "Mother... your hat." "I should have stayed with the baby." "Melpo and the children are with her." "I should have stayed with the baby." "Melpo and the children are with her." "Don't wory." "I'm tying to kidnap you between two books." "You live your own life beside us,beside your daughter and me, but not with us." "I know one day you'll leave." "The wind takes your eyes far away..." "But give me this day... as though it were our last..." "Give me this day!" "The rock!" "Let's go for a swim at the rock!" "I'm climbing up there." "Traitor!" "Why are you angy, Anna?" "Come on... please. I won't be long." "Please... I won't be long!" "Traitor!" "Christos..." "Vassilis..." "Alexander..." "Summer '39..." "Good afternoon." "Good afternoon, doctor." "Sory, my mind was elsewhere." "I was worried about you..." "I was afraid that... it would have progressed even faster, eh?" "The body that won't obey.." "The body's familiar contours blur... dissolve... turn into a shadow of itself." "I'm being admitted tomorrow." "You said when the pain gets too bad..." "Look." "I didn't know how to put it." "I was in a difficult position." "I've always admired you so much." "Our generation grew up with your books and verses." "I've got to leave you now." "They're expecting me." "Why did you disappear?" "I've been looking for you." "What's the matter?" "What is it?" "What's wrong?" "It's Selim..." "Good evening." "They brought a boy in this afternoon... one of those traffic light kids who was killed on the highway." "I told you, it's forbidden." "Look, the coroner knows me." "He knows you?" "Hold on a second." "I'll make a call." "Hey!" "Selim..." "Too bad you won't be coming with us tonight." "Hey!" "Selim... I'm scared!" "Hey!" "Selim." "The sea is vey big." "What's it like where you're going, Selim?" "What will it be like where we're going?" "What if there were mountains ravines, cops, soldiers... we never drew back." "Now I face the sea and there's no end to it..." "At night I saw my mother..." "standing in the doorway, sad." "Christmas day it was." "Snow on the mountain tops and bells ringing." "If only you could talk to us about those porrts..." "About Marseilles..." "Naples... and the great wide world." "Hey, Selim, talk, talk to us about the great wide world." "Hey, Selim, talk, talk to us." "Good evening." "Good evening." "I'll be back later." "I'd better leave you alone." "Mother... I'm sory i haven't come to see you all this time." "You know... what with one thing and another..." "Mother... I came to say goodbye." "I'm leaving." "Dinner's ready!" "I'm coming..." "Maria, you look after my big brother now!" "It's not me that needs looking after!" "Where were you?" "Your father-in-law was worried!" "No, not me." "Your mother." "So, what does the Left have to say, Alexander?" "About what?" "Come on!" "Call the children!" "Dinner's ready." "Alexander is here!" "What's the world like from up there, Alexander?" "Magical!" " Am I late, Mother?" " You'll never grow up." "Even as a child you were always disappearing." "Dinner's ready!" " Where's Anna?" " l saw her walking away." "Anna!" "We're going up to the cave!" "I'm going to find Anna!" "Where are you going, Anna?" "Have you gone mad?" "Far away on the open seas..." "Your island travels on..." "One of your shirrts, forgotten fluttering on the balcony..." "Oh!" "You who lie sheltered in the shadow of a room... ransacked by the voices of the night." "I look at you with my eyes closed." "I hear you with my ears sealed." "Mouthless, I beseech you." "The knives and forks... the silver ones..." "My dowy..." "Where have you put them?" "They were here yesterday... yesterday... they were still here..." "Why, mother?" "Why didn't anyything work out the way we expected?" "Why?" "Why must we rot... helplessly... torn between pain and desire?" "Why have I lived my life in exile?" "Why have I felt at home only in those rare moments... when granted the grace to speak my language..." "My own language..." "When I could still recover lost words... or retrieve forgotten words from the silence..." "Why is it that only then... could I hear the sound of my footsteps... echoing in my house again?" "Why?" "Tell me, mother..." "Why didn't we know how to love?" "I wanted to say goodbye." "So, you're leaving tonight... in the middle of the night... I thought..." "You let me believe that..." "You're leaving too..." "I won't have anyone any more..." "You will..." "Soon, you'll have the great journey... the porrts... the whole world..." "'Bye..." "Stay with me!" "You still have two hours before the ship sails... and I have only this night..." "Stay with me." "I'm scared." "So am I." "Stay with me." "Stay with me." "Shall we get on?" ""All Souls" stop." "You're 50 drachmas shorrt." "Two student fares." "Maria... must you walk away when I'm talking to you?" "I don't see why you have to be angy!" "We need new arrtistic forms, Maria..." "We need new forms of expression... and if we can't have them..." "better to have nothing." "I love you..." "I love you with all my hearrt..." "But you're leading a senseless life... going around with this writer.." "Your name is always in the gossip columns." "It makes me sick." "And yet I love you!" "Why do you walk away when I'm talking to you?" ""Conserrvatoy" stop." "The dawn's last dewwy morning star... heralded the coming of a radiant sun..." "No mist or shadow dared to mar... the perfection of that cloudless sky... from where a gentle breeze sweetly blew... caressing the faces down below... as if to murmur into the hearrt's recesses." "Life is sweet... and..." "Life is sweet." "Tell me!" "How long does tomorrow last?" "It's time." "Right?" ""Argadini"" "What did you say?" "It means vey late..." "Vey late..." "Deep in the night." "I have to go." "'Bye." "I am writing to you by the sea." "Again and again... I write to you..." "I talk to you." "When..." "When you happen to recall this day..." "Remember... that I looked at it as if I were all eyes..." "Caressed it as if I were all hands... I stand here and wait for you, trembling..." "Give me this day!" "Alexander!" "Shall we dance?" "I know you don't like to, but today is my day." "Anna, I'm not going to the hospital." "I'm not going to the hospital, Anna." "I'm not going." "I'd like to make plans for tomorrow." "The stranger will answer me playing the same music." "And there'll always be someone... to sell me words." "Tomorrow..." "What's tomorrow, Anna?" "I asked you once "how long does tomorrow last?"" "and you said..." "An eternity and a day... I didn't hear you..." "What did you say?" "An eternity and a day!" "My passage over to the other side tonight." "With word I brought you back again... and you are here." "And all is true and all is a waiting... for the true... for the true..." "My little flower..." "Outsider... I..." "Vey late..."