The film «MY BELOVED SMYRNA,» based on the play of the same name by Mimi Denisi, is a high-budget production with an international cast, the largest in the history of Greek cinema, that pays tribute to the culture of Ionia. A remarkable cinematic endeavor with universal themes, which aims to convincingly bring to the big screen not only the magical atmosphere of the era through exquisite sets and costumes, but also the heart-wrenching destruction of Smyrna using modern digital effects. The film was shot in Lesbos, Chios, Athens, Piraeus, and Faliro.
Mimi Denisi collaborated with Martin Sherman on the screenplay, while Grigoris Karantinakis directed the film. In front of the camera, the film features a stellar international cast, including Mimi Denisi, Leonidas Kakouris, Burak Hakki, Kratero Katsouli, Tamilla Koulieva, Katerina Geronikolou, Dina Michailidou, Anastasia Pantousi, Ozdemir Ciftcioglu, Nedi Antoniadi, Yiannis Englezos, Efi Gousi, Nathan Thomas, Christos Stergioglou, Theodoros Katsafados, Daniel Crossley, Duncan Skinner, Daphne Alexander, Michalis Mitrousis, Natalia Dragoumi, Manolis Gerapetritis, Andreas Natsios, Ian Roberson, Joanna Kalafatis, Yiannis Vogiatzis, Jane Lapotaire, Susan Humshire, and Rupert Graves.
Behind the camera, Simos Sarketzis served as director of photography, costumes by Fotini Dimou, and set design by the team of Ilias Ledakis, Yiannis Papadopoulos, and Michalis Samiotis. The digital effects were created by the Greek company Yafka. The film will be released in theaters by Tanweer on December 23, 2021, to mark the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
Summary
Filio Williams, an elderly Greek-American woman, rushes to Mytilene with her granddaughter to offer support to Syrian refugees. No one knows her origins; no one knows that her grandmother, who was from Smyrna, once found herself on the same island, persecuted and a refugee herself. The little notebook containing the recipes of her namesake grandmother, Filio, unfolds the tumultuous history of the cosmopolitan Baltatzis family, as shaped by the tragic international events that determined the fate of entire peoples. Different generations of women from the same family are united across space and time, woven together by the threads of history. The present and the past become one.
Eftychia Papalouka
