Under the Stars
(Kato apo t’astra)
With Akis Sakellariou, Myrto Alikaki, Stella Fyrogenni.
Greece/Cyprus/UK, 2001, 35mm, color, 87 min.
Greek with English subtitles.
In this thoughtful portrait of life in contemporary Cyprus—where separate Greek and Turkish sectors have been created by a UN-enforced Green Line—Christos Georgiou creates a road movie that traverses the psychological wounds the partition of the island has left on its population. Witness to the violence of the fighting after the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974, Lukas, a Greek Cypriot, now lives a reclusive life in the divided city of Nicosia. Unable to escape the memories of his childhood, he decides to embark on a journey to his native village, now in the Turkish sector. He enlists the help of Phoebe, a spirited young woman who also witnessed that era but embraces life by smuggling goods across the partition borders and trading with both Greeks and Turks. Along their journey, the couple is forced to confront their personal demons until a magical reconciliation with the ghosts of the island allows them to discover a path to the future.