Alexander the Great
by Theodoros Angelopoulos.
Once upon a time
a foreign king came to conquer the land of our ancestors.
Alexander who came from the Elli,
a race of warriors who ruled in the mountains,
assembled his brave Macedonians,
chased the foreign king and freed our land.
Afterwards he moved on into the depths of Asia
vanquishing and liberating nations and tongues.
One evening,
as he was looking at the sun setting into the great river,
a sadness fell upon him.
That very night he left his companions
and went away alone
searching for the end of the world.
Long live the 20th century!
Who's there'?
I came onto the stage in darkness.
The orchestra was playing the introduction. And suddenly...
light!
All lights on me!
The men were calling out excitedly.
They threw their hats up in the air.
- What's he saying? - Something in ancient Greek.
Minister!
Is it true that you are resigning to join the opposing party'?
You must be happy tonight. You have danced with the King.
- It is of no importance. - Indeed.
Ray of the sun,
fairest light of all those shining on seven-gated Thebes,
at last you appeared.
O eyes of golden day,
coming over the streams of Dirce,
you sent away the White-shielded warrior from Argos,
running from here, with your piercing bridle.
L, Alexander,
captain of the rebels
write to his Majesty the government and the Ambassador of England.
The lords are in good health.
Your Grace must arrange
for the landowners to give back the fields to their rightful owners.
There must be an amnesty for me and my men
and all the other prisoners who took to the mountains
because we were wronged
and tried to get back what was rightfully ours from the landowners and the moneylenders.
When you have done what I ask, I shall free the lords and the ladies.
Then no innocent blood will have been spilled.
Alexander!
Alexander! Alexander!
Alexander!
And thou shalt call his name Alexander.
- No one knows Where he came from. - He was found as a child, Wandering
and when I asked him his name, he said, "Alexander".
And no one ever learned anything more about him.
Holy the bread Holy the Wine.
Holy the hay for the horse
Alexander the Great, you are the wind.
And St George, slayer of the dragon.
Holy the silence Holy the sound.
Holy the great word
Alexander the Great, you are the sun
and St George, slayer of the dragon.
Five years of hard labour, Captain.
It blurred my judgment.
Message from the government.
The government offers to pay
any amount of ransom money required to release the hostages
but it is impossible to grant a general amnesty
as this is expressly forbidden by the constitution.
We are Italian anarchists, wanted by the police.
We've heard people talk about Alexander.
We're going to the village too!
Turn round!
Welcome to the community.
We are glad to see you among us again. You belong here.
This village is your village too.
But since you went away,
there have been many changes. You'll see it for yourselves.
We thought we'd gather tomorrow
to discuss every aspect of the situation,
including the kidnapping of the foreigners.
Teacher, vve are all very glad.
Yes! Yes!
Only we must not put the village and everything we have worked for in danger.
Yes! Yes!
The lords are mighty men. The countryside will be swarming with soldiers.
Yes! Yes!
Tomorrow. We'll talk about all that tomorrow.
Tonight we celebrate your homecoming.
Captain and the rest of you, welcome.
Welcome, father.
I have come home, dear Wife.
Piero Cori has told us about your experiment in organising a village commune.
I met him in Paris.
I saw him again in '93 at the Labour Congress, in Genoa.
- We didn't always agree. - Yes. We know.
The loathsome mask has fallen. The man remains.
Sceptreless. Free.
Uncircumscribed. Equal.
Classless. Tribeless. Nationless.
Exempt from all worship, decree. King over himself!
It's like a dream.
Who are you'?
Italian anarchists, wanted by the police.
What do you want'?
To stay here
as long as it is necessary to avoid arrest.
We shall respect your convictions.
But in order to stay, you must obey the laws of the community.
Work in the community Workshop...
in the sheepfold...
and elsewhere.
Conform to the rulings of the elected judges.
Defend the community in case of danger.
Respect the sovereign authority of the community.
There is no private ownership.
Everything belongs to all.
Men and Women have equal rights.
Father, let me in!
Let me in!
Father, let me in.
Let me in.
Father, let me in!
Go ahead, Teacher!
Tell me, fair youth, so handsome and honest.
Which country do you come from'?
I Worship the people.
The world is my country.
Freedom of thought is my faith.
Houses belong to the men who live in them.
It's shameful to ignore this.
Time belongs to philosophers.
Houses belong to the men who live in them It's shameful to ignore this.
Time belongs to philosophers. The fields belong to the men who toil in them.
Goodbye my beautiful home, goodbye.
Beloved mother and father.
Welcome to the feast and to the community.
I'll be a fearless fist for the Revolution.
Like Leonidas, I'll know how to die.
Teacher,
the village has changed.
After so many years in jail,
we have returned and we haven't got anything.
Everything belongs to the community.
Our houses are not our houses any more.
We have to beg for our Women
to beg for our children to beg for our cattle.
Captain, we are surrounded.
The army is everywhere - in the bushes, by the river, in huts.
Why, Captain?
We had forgotten all about it.
We don't need the time here. No one rules us.
Down with clocks!
Message from the captain, Alexander the Great!
The little lord has a cold.
The others are well
but they have begun to be afraid
that you are going to sacrifice them
in the name of the nation's prestige and so on and so forth.
- In our last lesson... - Teacher!
I suggest there is no lesson today.
No matter what has happened, we must go on like before.
That is Why no issue should be left unaddressed.
There is the question of the slaughtered sheep. I move for a trial.
They have to be here to be tried. Who's going to bring them in'?
We believe the time has come to give a political meaning to the kidnapping.
We must consider the Englishmen political prisoners
- and put them on trial. - As enemies of the people.
Since this morning, we are besieged. Events have overtaken us.
The slaughtered sheep are the least of our Worries.
The decisions do not come from us any more.
We are the majority, Teacher.
Angel's Sword. Listen to the eternal word.
The blade knows no law, your head will fall.
If you don't kill, you'll be killed.
You bow your head, the blade is merciless.
If you hesitate, you'll be massacred.
If we resort to violence, we are lost.
Their relentlessness will be met with relentlessness.
Old man, builders say that a stone has seven faces. It's wise to try them all.
I move that the trial takes place as if they were present
and the sentence will be carried out when we return to normal.
We, the elected judges of the community,
shall pronounce sentence on Alexander and his men,
accused of the wilful destruction of communal property.
Captain Alexander and the rest of you, what is your defence?
I caught him trying to enter the village secretly.
He wants to talk to you.
He sent his scribe.
British Warships have blockaded Phaliron bay. Their guns are pointing at Athens.
My government has submitted its resignation.
Greece will be a laughing stock.
Why doesn't the government grant amnesty?
The constitution forbids it.
- Who made the constitution? - The nation.
Whoever makes something, can unmake it.
My government has another proposition -
a petition for a royal pardon.
But there must be a trial first.
A formality, for appearances' sake.
So, decide to give yourselves up, to be tried, under my personal assurance,
and you will be pardoned by the king in a fortnight.
We shan't go to jail again.
Bring the judges here, to the huts, for the trial.
So we can see them and hear them.
Then we shall wait for the pardon.
When we get the paper with the seals, we shall free them.
Wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from the orifice of this death?
To save the honour of the country.
The bones that have been humbled shall rejoice...
We, the landowners of the region, have decided,
in order to save the honour of our country,
to absolve you from your debts
and to give you back the fields.
I am trying to understand who the guiding spirit of his escape was.
What were his reasons?
Nobody knows anything. Nobody talks about it.
It seems to me like a gigantic trap.
The policy of Alexander is the policy of the charismatic leader.
He has the ability to make any action of his obscure.
You swore obedience to the decisions of the community.
Teacher, the dream is in danger.
O Lord, save Your people.
And bless Your inheritance.
Grant victories to Your rulers.
Over their adversaries.
And by virtue of Your cross.
Preserve Your commonwealth.
- Where to, holy fathers? - To the monastery.
O Lord, save Your people.
And bless Your inheritance.
Grant victories to Your rulers.
Over their adversaries.
And by virtue of Your cross.
Preserve Your commonwealth.
The government, Wishing to put an end to this affair
and to prove its good will, accepts your proposals.
Victory!
We won!
Victory!
Villagers! Calm down!
Calm down!
Villagers! Calm down!
- How can we calm down, Chief? - Calm down now!
- You Won't shut me up! - Let's talk it through.
The fields belong to us,
- to our fathers and grandfathers. - Shame on you!
That is enough!
You've always been taking advantage of us.
Enough! That's enough.
Gianni...
The fields we will be taking back belong to no one.
They belong to the community just like everything else.
My grandfather paid the Turks with his own blood to buy those fields.
My father spent his life in toiling in them.
We had agreed we would all go to the school and discuss.
You are losing your liberty.
Despotism will crush the life of this commune.
Your revolution is dying.
Its ghost will howl in the desert.
At the dark close of the dying century, over the gloomy and desolate horizon.
The threatening dawn of the fateful day is already rising.
Hate, hunger and sorrow cry from thousands of skeletal faces.
And the redeeming crash also cries of dynamite.
We are ready, on every streets pavement, macabre spectres of the extreme moment.
With the holy name of anarchy on our lips, vve will rise up.
For all the unavenged victims, there in the roar of the epic thunder.
We will compensate on the barricades, lead with lead.
We will fall in a glitter of glory opening a novel path to the future.
The new history of anarchy will rise from blood.
Villagers, stop it!
Stop it!
Villagers!
Shame on you, villagers.
Stop it!
No!
- Stop it, I said! - Brothers!
Stop it!
Leave me alone!
Stop it!
Smile, please!
Don't move!
Like statues, gentlemen.
In the name of the king.
The criminal court is in session.
Let the trial begin.
Just a moment!
O Lord, save Your people.
And bless Your inheritance.
Grant victories to Your rulers.
Over their adversaries.
And by virtue of Your cross.
And protect Your commonwealth.
Accused of murders,
robberies, kidnappings, etcetera.
In short, accused of violation of all the paragraphs of the penal code,
Alexander, surname unknown,
so-called Alexander the Great,
and other bandits Whose names I shall not read, in order to save time.
The defendants present?
They are present.
Let the victims and witnesses for the prosecution come forth.
Ray of the sun,
fairest light of all those shining on seven-gated Thebes,
at last you appeared.
O eyes of golden day, coming over the streams of Dirce,
you sent away the White-shielded warrior from Argos,
running from here, with your piercing bridle.
Let's be brief. We are soaking Wet.
The public prosecutor may state his case.
Your Honour, gentlemen...
Why, Captain Alexander?
We had nothing to gain from the murder of the prosecutor.
Neither you, nor us. Nobody.
The village is in danger, Captain.
Take your men and go away.
We undertake to hand over the hostages to the authorities.
Otherwise, it's every man for himself.
Why'?
It had to be done.
He'd have spoiled everything.
They'd have spoiled everything.
It had to be done.
I woke with a marble head in my hands.
It exhausts my elbows.
And I don't know what to do with it.
Fire!
They've burnt down our sheep pens with the sheep inside them!
They've poisoned the Water too.
They've poisoned the water.
My poor sheep!
What are we waiting for'?
There go the sheep.
What are we waiting for, villagers?
What a tragedy!
The captain orders you to surrender the arms and the provisions.
Otherwise, he'll be obliged to use force.
Wait!
Turn round!
The captain wanted to say that,
for your own good, for everybody's sake,
he is obliged to confiscate arms and provisions
and to impose a curfew on the village.
Teacher, it's me, Alexander.
Teacher, I don't understand.
Our last lesson was about history.
Today we'll talk about ownership and power.
Ownership is...
Power is...
And if I talk to you in parables,
it's because it's more gentle for you that way.
Horror can't be talked about
because it's alive,
because it's mute and it advances.
We came too late, Captain. They've gone.
We've found this.
Right, Teacher, we'll do what you say.
Come.
Go to sleep, Alexander.
It's warm in there.
Go to sleep, Alexander.
It's warm in there.
- It's unjust. - Unjust.
It's unjust.
I was with them too.
Alexander!
You've ruined everything.
All has disappeared - the feast and the banners.
Nothing remains.
The volition of one man.
Massimo was right.
Don't you understand?
There is something else, invisible, behind all this.
They've used you, Alexander.
Teacher, it's me, Alexander.
Ownership is...
Power is...
It's me.
It's me, boss.
And so Alexander went into the cities.