"A.", a Greek filmmaker exiled to the United States, returns to his native Ptolemas to attend a special screening of one of his extremely controversial films. But A.'s real interest lies elsewhere - the mythical reels of the very first film shot by the Manakia brothers, who, at the dawn of the age of cinema, tirelessly criss-crossed the Balkans and, without regard for national and ethnic strife, recorded the region's history and customs. Did these primitive, never developed images really exist? If so, where are they? - "Why 'A'? It's an alphabetical choice. Every filmmaker remembers the first time he looked through the viewfinder of a camera. It is a moment which is not so much the discovery of cinema, but the discovery of the world. But there comes a moment when the filmmaker begins to doubt his own capacity to see things, when he no longer knows if his gaze is right and innocent." (Theo Angelopoulos)
Greek filmmaker Theodoros Angelopoulos is one of a dying breed: a visionary filmmaker with a masterful sense of visual and thematic composition. Unfortunately, this winner of the 1995 Grand Jury prize at Cannes (that’s the runner-up award), which stars Harvey Keitel, isn’t the best way to appreciate what he’s capable of. In the three-hour epic, a Greek filmmaker called A. (an out-of-place Keitel) returns from exile in America to find three missing film reels. The treasured reels, reportedly made by two famous Greek filmmakers during the country’s silent era, amount to A.’s Holy Grail. And his journey to find them – through the war-shattered Balkans by train, automobile and foot – is an existential odyssey. Visually, as always, the director’s work (photographed by Yorgos Arvanitis) is stunning. But this grim travelogue through a landscape of despair lacks internal power. It feels labored and portentous. – Desson Howe, The Washington Post