Persecution
Persecution (Greek Διωγμός) was a Greek film released in 1964.
Plot
During the German occupation of Greece in World War II, a resistance fighter named Kanaris is wounded in a battle with Germans and seeks refuge in the house of an Asia Minor refugee named Katerina.
Katerina nurses Kanaris however she is betrayed to the Germans by a blackmarketeer. To avoid capture, she and Kanaris take a fishing boat to Turkey where they are locked up in an internment camp by the authorities.
Katerina seeks to stay in Turkey to find out the fate of her son whom she lost as she fled 20 years ago. She decides to dig up, with the help of Kanaris, a small treasure she hid in the yard of her old house in 1922 so she can bribe Lt. Osen - the unscrupulous and corrupt young Turkish official who is in charge. The pair are caught and hauled before the Osen.
During the interrogation, Katerina claims the treasure box as her own and describes the contents. She mistakenly also describes a medallion her son wore when he was lost. Lt Osen gets very much upset and has her thrown out.
The next day the Greeks in the camp are allowed to leave on a train for the Middle East. On the train, Katerina is handed the box and her son's medallion by one of Osen's men. She realises that Lt. Osen is in fact her son and runs out to see him. As she reaches him, she is shot by a guard and dies in the arms of her son.
Cast
- Voula Zoumboulaki - Katerina Rodelli
- Petros Fyssoun - Lt. Osen / Konstantis Rodellis
- Manos Katrakis - the priest
- Phaedon Georgitsis - Yiannis Charalambous ("Kanaris")
- Chrysi Koziri - the nurse
- Anestis Vlachos - the blackmarketeer
- Makis Revmatas - the British consul
- Vyron Pallis - Otto Schweitzer
Awards
Persecution won three awards at the Film Festival of Thessaloniki:
- Best Film
- Scenario
- Directing
