Meteora (film)

Meteora (Greek: Μετέωρα) is a 2012 Greek drama film directed by Spiros Stathoulopoulos. The film competed in competition at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012.^[1] The film takes its title from the Byzantine monastery complex Metéora, in Thessaly, a series of structures built on natural sandstone pillars whose tops often disappear into the clouds.^[2]

Plot

The monastery at Meteora

All action takes place at, or near, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Meteora. A young Greek monk falls in love with a Russian nun. The story looks at the struggle between religious devotion and temptations of the flesh, and the yearning of the human heart.^[3] The couple to each other across the valley using mirrors to flash a morse code signal, with lights dancing on the wall of her cell in the Agios Stefano Convent, also set on a rock pinnacle.

It is set in hugely dramatic rock pinnacles, where monasteries perch on the apex of the rock, and the main access is to be hauled up in a net tied to a rope. A steep set of steps also access from one side. Views throughout are breath-taking, and often in extreme long-shot, with human figures appearing as small moving black dots on the screen.

The rituals of the Greek Orthodox Church are followed in this extreme environment, very remote from modern human life in every sense.

Basic food (bread and milk) is delivered to the monks by the nuns, and winched up using the same net and rope system used for the monks themselves. There is no electricity, and lighting is by means of oil lamps. Music in the monastery is limited to rhythmic hammering on a suspended wooden board and a few bells.

The film is interspersed with sections of animation, based on ancient Greek icons and religious art.

Cast

• Theo Alexander as Brother Georgi
• Tamila Koulieva as the nun with the injured hand

References

External links

• Meteora at the Internet Movie Database