‘The Travelling Players’, directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos in 1975, is an epic Greek historical drama following a troupe of actors as they perform a play through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The film moves from the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas, through the Second World War and the occupation by the Nazis, to the post-war occupation by the British and Americans, using the actors as a way of shifting through both the history and the geography of the country, but it does far more than this. The play uses the story of Elektra to inform both the idea of the players and the historical events they witness as they become an intrinsic part of the political struggles of the country towards democracy. It’s a long and complex film, but also, in its way, a simple one. The film is punctuated by scenes of the actors setting up and performing, by scenes of violence and executions, and small intimate scenes showing the relationships between the characters. The end result is a kind of a mash-up of Fellini (there are hints of both ‘Amarcord’ and ‘Roma’) and both Bela Tarr and Miklós Jancsó  – Angelopoulos favours long, unbroken takes involving complex camera movements. The film has a pleasing, hypnotic quality that gets under your skin, Angelopoulos allows the story to develop at a glacial pace and balances the moments of historical import and drama with quieter, more intimate character scenes.  At nearly four hours long, it’s not for everyone and I’d recommend reading up on pre- and post-war Greek history before watching.

Would I recommend it? It’s a long and intricately plotted film that connects traditional Greek drama with modern Greek history. The scale of this film makes it historically important and the way it is shot makes it cinematically important. I’d watch it in a double bill with Jancsó ‘s ‘Electra, My Love’