Iphigenia [Michael Cacoyannis, 1977] H264-AC3

Iphigenia, a film by Michael Cacoyannis (1977)
based on Euripides' tragedy "Iphigenia at Aulis"

The Greek army is becalmed in Aulis and unable to sail to Troy. King Agamemnon has to face food shortage, the soldiers' mutiny but also soothsayer Calhas' intrigues, who saw the King killing his sacred cows, during a demonstration of his authority. Calhas, in order to take revenge, delivers an oracle saying that the winds will blow only if Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia. The ambitious army commander, orders his daughter to leave Argos and come to Aulis, under the pretext of marrying her off to Achilles. Clytemnestra arrives at Aulis together with Iphigenia full of happiness at her daughter's good fortune. But when she learns the truth, Clytemnestra tries, in vain, to change Agamemnon's mind...

Euripides is always contemporary because he has written about situations we have been experiencing for centuries now. Throughout his life, he struggled against corruption, oppression, war, ambition and religious preconceptions. War corrupts and destroys the human soul to such an extent that neither the individual nor the group can function normally any longer. Another conflict presented in the film is the one between the Church and Authority. By telling Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter, the soothsayer wants to destroy him. If the King refuses, he would lose his power; by consenting, he comes closer to his moral undoing. Of course, Agamemnon plays a game. He consents to the sacrifice because, blinded by ambition, he believes that the winds will blow. When he realises he has come up against a murder, he is already trapped. But, in this weak position, the measure of his ambition is the measure of his susceptibility. Agamemnon reaches this point only after being corrupted.


Cast: Tatiana Papamoschou (Iphigenia), Irene Papa (Clytemnestra), Kostas Kazakos (Agamemnon), Kostas Karras (Menelaos), Christos Tsagas (Odysseus), Panos Mihalopoulos (Achilles), Dimitris Aronis (Calchas), Giorgos Vourvahakis (Orestes), Irene Koumarianou (nurse).

Music: Mikis Theodorakis.

Best Film and Best Leading Actress (for Tatiana Papamoschou) Awards at the 1977 Thessaloniki Film Festival. 1978 Belgian Femina Award.

Iphigenia on Wikipedia

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DVD-Rip (FairUse Wizard 2.11b)
Format: MKV
Video codec: H264 @ 1423 Kbps / 640x384 / 23.976 fps
Audio codec: AC3 @ 192 Kbps / 48 KHz
Duration: 2:09:17
Language: Greek
Subtitles: English + French + Spanish (srt)
File size: 1.46 Gb

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