The Suspended Step of the Stork - English subtitled
Meditative work by director Angelopoulos about a reporter stuck in a border town overrun by migrants. Here, he believes to have spotted a long lost Greek politician.
While working on a story in the Greek border area, Alexandre, a television reporter, discovers a remote ghost town. Locals call the small town ‘the waiting room’ because most of its inhabitants are foreign refugees, waiting for a new life. Among the masses, Alexandre believes to have seen a Greek politician who mysteriously disappeared years earlier. To identify him, he starts searching for the man’s former wife in Athens.
THE SUSPENDED STEP OF THE STORK is a poetical allegory on borders, as geographical borders turn out to be symbols for the separation between races and religions. Evidently, this idea is as urgent as it ever was. Despite this minimal concept, Angelopoulos does not shy away from grand gestures. The film opens with a grand ballet of two helicopters several meters above sea level. The lead roles are played by two giants of European cinema: Jeanne Moreau and Marcello Mastroianni. The fact that they also fit effortlessly into the director’s universe says a lot about the control Angelopoulos exercised over his craft. (wg)