I Roza tis Smyrnis

I loved this story! I have seen it twice, and it's a jewel! The acting is superb, the photography is wonderful, the music is outstanding, and the plot and suspense kept me on my seat. History unfolds in this captivating movie as does the mystery of a woman's stained wedding dress from the time of 1922 Smyrna.

Dimitris is busy preparing for an exhibition in Athens with his girlfriend, Rita. During a trip to Izmar, he finds a wedding dress, stained with blood, and a letter inside addressed to the wedding dress owner, Roza. The dress is antique, during the time of the 1922 event of the Fire in Smyrna. He buys it and plans to use it at the exhibition. Like a detective story, he slowly unearths the truth behind the wedding dress, showing us glimpses of the history behind it and the people and customs of those times. In his search for Roza, he also meets Marianna, a sweet beautiful artist. Their love story is a highlight of the movie. The end is quite revealing and somewhat sad, but I still enjoyed everything about this story!

If you are a lover of exotic romance stories and mysteries, this is a movie for you! I also liked the message it gave - it not only captures a time period in history, but moves beyond it and suggests a better approach to humanity - to love one another, no matter the country you're born in or your religion, and no matter the past.

This movie is based on the novel Ismael and Rosa by Giannis Giannellis. It tells the story of Dimitris, an antique dealer in Athens, who discovers an old wedding dress stained with blood, a letter, and a photograph from Smyrna (modern-day Izmir). His curiosity leads him to uncover a hidden family secret connected to Rosa, an elderly Greek woman living in Istanbul.

The film is visually stunning, with beautiful cinematography that captures both the historical and contemporary settings of Greece and Turkey. The performances, especially from Lydia Fotopoulou as Rosa, bring depth to the characters, and the soundtrack enhances the film's nostalgic and melancholic tone.

While Rosa of Smyrna succeeds in creating an engaging mystery and emotional depth, some critics felt that the story could have been more tightly woven, as it sometimes leans into melodrama. However, for those who enjoy historical dramas with themes of lost love, identity, and cultural connections, it's a worthwhile watch. The movie is historically balanced, and so atmospheric. Definitely worth watching it. It begins way different and ends with major plot twists with much understanding from both sides. It was a great, bittersweet movie that everyone needs to watch and definitely know the History behind it. It's NOT for the faint of hearts.

The greatest problem is that you have to know history to understand this movie and be touched so I think the director should have given a prologue at the beginning as it is done in many movies.This is very important if we want a movie to be seen by everyone not only from Turkish and Greeks.Good performances and it is a very educational movie which talks about the disaster that war causes to both sides...for this humanitarian approach I give a higher rate than the movie deserves If there was a historical prologue,more scenes from the past in Ismir between Ross and Ismail as flashbacks this would be a much better movie. Still deserves to watch it :)

I liked it.

It has very strong script/story, the direction is nice, photography is good & nice music too.

Yes, it lacks (a bit) in the dialogues, but not so much as some wrote. Generally, is very good film. It has a lot emotion, drama, its keeping you to the last minute - especially with the nice idea to having the old woman (Roza) keeping a secret in her entire life (and you want to unlock her secret, you want to find it out).

I recommending it.

People may hear a lot historical stories and have a point of view from a certain angle. But hearing the same stories from the other side may change that point of view. As the main idea of the movie, when you start to understand the 'others', you will start looking from a wider angle and having a big mind. Fanaticism does not help anything but only losing friends and lovers. A Greek person can be a good person as a Turkish person can. It is that simple. Life does not worth fighting.

Eventually, what this movie leaves behind is an unfinished love story which was not allowed by the parents of a young couple who believes a Greek can not marry to a Turkish.