Athens in 1950. Antonis Barkas, a famous shadow-theatre player sees his art dying out. The audience of the traditional shadow-puppet show is turning its back on this classical kind of theatre that has kept it entertained for over a century and flocks to the movies whose popularity is spreading like wildfire in the cities as well as in the countryside. The old man knows time is running out for his shadow shows and the anxiety he feels spills over into acrimonious relationships with the people around him, including his much younger sister, who lives in his shadow and who's engaged to an unsympathetic seaman, the company's singer who despite everything remains faithful to the end and his young assistant who wants to move with the times. An uncompromising romantic to the end the shadow-theatre player dies with the art form he has served so loyally and so well.
His death marks the end of an era but at the same time it sets those around him free to pursue their lives as they see fit. Lefteris Xanthopoulos creates a superb reconstruction of a transitional period very much like the present where it is the cinema that is niw waging its own battle against the onslaught of television. |