Gerasimos Skiadaresis, Laura Morante, Richard Sammel
Synopsis
Athens, 1943. An apartment is requisitioned to provide accommodation for a German officer. In the apartment live the Helianos, a middle-aged couple who used to be well-off. He is an intellectual, moderate and patient. She is an anxious, sickly housewife. They have a ten-year-old son who is filled with melodramatic revenge fantasies and a twelve-year old daughter. With the arrival of Captain Kalter everything is wiped out. The methodical, ascetic, cruel Karter is a military god who inflicts terror. And the Helianos give in, submissive. They are now servants, with no identity other than their acquiescence. The will of the military god is their only worry. The apartment enshrouds them like an epidermis. At night, clinging to each other on the folding bed in the kitchen, they weave wild ravings: they dread the following day’s orders, they exchange sparse, terse words. They are afraid of making noise, they don’t want to move anything. Then, suddenly the absence. The master leaves for Germany and the servants find out that freedom doesn’t have any meaning and that the ordeal goes on. When Karter comes back, they feel relieved. He is a changed man: he’s kinder, even indulgent. His indulgency is bewildering. But it is a fragile balance. Underground currents of hatred flow secretly and prepare a chilling revenge.
