"Thomas and I made up our minds. Tonight we're leaving for Greece.
Where are we going?
To the homeland, says I.
To disaster, says Thomas and laughs."
So begins the hellish descent of three refugees, members of the Greek minority of Northern Epirus in Albania, "from the snow" to the depths of Omonia Square in Athens. There they will face hunger, the evaporation of the vision, the first symptoms of modern Athenians' latent -but unconfessed - racism.
"In Albania they call us Greeks and in Greece Albanians..." Thomas tells Achilles a little before the end. When he meets a totally untimely and senseless death his companion decides to return to the snow. There, at least, one can hang on to one's dreams… |