Poliorkia

The Greek Independence War against the Ottoman Turkish Empire, is an AMAZING & IMPORTANT historical event that VERY FEW films hove covered - one or two Hollywood films and a couple dozen "Kitsch" Greek movies... This is quite good production, quite well made. I won't spoil or write anything about the film. Its about a very important battle and its the second film of the same director/producer.

Lets see the Pros & Cons of this film.

PROS -------

• Very good outfirst, weapons, "uniforms", banners/flags, very historical accurate - which is amazing, because other VERY MUCH MORE expensive productions had very bad costumes.

• Very good photography, great lighting, realistic shadows and illuminated sources, accurate to the historic era.

• Nice sould fx.

• The turkish dialogues are very good. I have origin from Istanbul and I know some turkish; these are well put, in the film.

• The landscape and the environment are great, natural (real Greek places), very realistic to that historical era.

• The story starts in WW2, just before the Nazi invasion to Greece (1941). That section is very very good, nicely portraited and the actors of those scenes.

• All the elder actors played very well.

• The "Arvanites" group were AMAZING portraited!

CONS -------

• The battle. This battle was a notorious one; took place in a monastery between 2000+ Greeks against 4000+ Turks. In the film, we have... 12 (tops!) Greeks (male & female) fighting the 4000+ Turkish army!!! Obviously the production didn't have money to hire a lot standmen, but they should figure out to solve this. In the entire battle, we see a LARGE WIDE monastery area covered by 10 men (many yards of uncovered small stone-fence wall and NO TURK trying to jump over it!), waves of Turks attacking the small wall and few Greeks defending for a couple days! Even my very young kid was surprised and asked me "Hey dad, how come so few people defeated so many Turks?"....
• The weapons firing. They were early-stage musket riffles, those "kariofili" the Greeks had. They were very bad weapons, many times they were jammed, lot of times they were EXPLODED on the fighters' faces and of course these weapons needed A LOT TIME to reload. In the film, we see the Greeks firing and firing and keep firing, like they had automatic modern weapons. I know, the production SUPPOSED TO PORTRAITED the real battle (which were 2000+ Greeks), but the VISUAL RESULT of the film is silly.

• The screenplay and acting were bellow average. The elder actors (those they are 50+ years old) played well, the younger actors failed a lot to act as they should in a such historic dramatic film.

• The actors, although they were wearing great historical accurate outfits, theire HAIRCUTS were VERY MODERN - like they were modern/present folks and they "jumped" there via a "time machine". Also, their DIALOGUES were VERY modern Greek, not that older Greek speaking.

• The plot was SLOWER than a... turtle! Seriously, I found myself lot times to press the "FF" button to skip a lot boring scenes.

• It was very obvious the production had few money to spend, it was a cheap production - you could see it all over the film.

Generally, it was a good effort, with average result.

I believe the production picked a WRONG event to present. This battle in that monastery was a LARGE SCALE battle between 2000+ Greek rioting guerilla troops against 4000+ regular Turkish army. So, since the production had few money to spend, they shouldn't pick that event to show. They are SO MANY events (large, small) in those 8 years the Greek Independence War took place, that they should pick OTHER event to show. For example, the "ZALOGGOS DEATH DANCE" of those brave Souliotisses women, that they refused to surrender to the Turks and they fell from a high cliff WITH THEIR CHILDREN and they died. Or, the last stand of the elder Souliotis KAPSALIS, who decided to fire up the arsenal in the basement of a church and blow up himself, the women & children there and thousand Turks around the church!!! ...So many other, more, events, small scale, to portrait better than THIS VERY LARGE SCALE battle.

Lets see their last 3rd movie, who it will be.

With films such as « The Siege » modern Greek History comes alive! It is the second historic costume drama directed by multi-talented Director/actor Vasilis Tsikaras touching themes from the Hellenic War of Independence. This film is a narrative of the siege of Dobra monastery in Greek Macedonia by the Turkish army where a handful of Greeks fought the enemy to their death, an allusion to the Battle of Thermopylae. The film begins with the wedding of two youth at the monastery right before the siege and their action thereafter. The plot is straightforward and easy to follow and the director focuses on the relationships among the different characters under the imminent threat of death. It is a film about faith and sacrifice, it brings alive the sacrificial spirit of that time, the spirit of true heroes to whom we Greeks owe our independence. The scene where the family decide together who will fight and who will flee is moving and real. The actors deliver a powerful performance, especially the vikar, and I was surprised to see some lesser-known quality Greek actors in such gripping roles. The whole movie is a lesson in modern history of Hellenic Macedonia delivered in truth and without bias. It is a must see for any lover of history! I totally recommend it for all learners of Greek as well!

Within the war-hostile climate of the era two families meet in a monastery to make a wedding a secret. But that does not go unnoticed. A betrayal will lead thousands of Turkish soldiers out of the monastery. The abbot of the monastery, the monks and the members of the two families, grab arms and Siege begins. Along with her, a survival struggle and a circle of revelations are also beginning. The story unfolds on the big screen, through the discussion of two officers of the Greek army, at the Rupel Fort in March 1941. "Siege" is part of Aratos Films' trilogy for 1821. We recall that the much-discussed "Exit 1826" by Vassilis Tsikaras was the first. It was the first film about 1821 after 46 years (Papaflessas, 1971). The Ministry of Education and the Institute of Educational Policy have described the film as "high-quality", in its historical, cultural and educational excellence.

I had hopes for this after the disappointment of the first flick. B. Tsikaras again organizes a big team of actors and films them in interesting locations with no budget or external resources. The photography is decent even though it is inferior to the first film. I found the acting quite OK. The real problems start from now on. Script and directing were disastrous. Action scenes were terribly realized. Repetition and poor dialogue made the film barely watchable. B. Tsikaras obviously doesn't have experience and knowledge of visual storytelling. 95% of the movie is bad exposition were you watch the actors sitting together and explaining what is happening in the film. I have utter respect for people who work against all odds to achieve their vision but sadly this movie fails in every aspect. Watch it only if you love the old movies of 1821.