Reuters World Service
May 26, 1995, Friday, BC cycle LENGTH: 314 words HEADLINE: Secret Cyprus talks cannot continue - Clerides DATELINE: NICOSIA, May 26 BODY: Cyprus will not continue exploratory talks on reuinting the Mediterranean island unless Turkey shows signs of changing its positions, Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides said on Friday. He told journalists after a meeting with political party leaders that secret talks held in London this week showed that Turkey, which has occupied the northern third of Cyprus for more than 20 years, had not changed its position. ''This procedure cannot continue if there are no specific indications (on a change in Turkey's stance),'' Clerides said. On Wednesday, a British Foreign Office spokesman said after the talks ended in London that the negotiators would meet in Cyprus soon to continue their discussions. Clerides said the United States and Britain -- which launched the London talks -- should explore whether Ankara is willing to change its position on the Cyprus problem before calling the Greek Cypriot side to further discussions. Turkey, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 after a short-lived coup engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece, is the only country to recognise a breakaway state declared by Turkish Cypriots in northern Cyprus. The Cyprus government is pressing ahead with its application to join the European Union. Turkey has threatened to annex northern Cyprus if the Greek Cypriots join the EU before a solution is found to the island's division. Clerides rejected criticism by some party leaders who opposed the talks which were in support of long-standing United Nations efforts to reunite Cyprus under a federal system. ''It turned out to be a useful meeting because it verified that there was no move (in the Turkish positions),'' he said. ''Let's not create the illusion that we are some sort of superpower which can reject everything and say we do not discuss anything, because we will look ridiculous,'' Clerides said. Reut11:41 05-26-95
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
May 26, 1995, Friday SECTION: Part 2 Central Europe and the Balkans; BALKANS; CYPRUS; EE/2313/B LENGTH: 450 words HEADLINE: LONDON TALKS; Turkish Cypriot leader Denktas assesses London talks SOURCE: Source: Radio Bayrak, Lefkosa (Nicosia), in Turkish 1530 gmt 24 May 95 BODY: The president of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktas, has given his assesssment of the London talks on Cyprus to the Turkish Cypriot News Agency (TAK). He said the main problems were the Greek Cypriot administration's claim to represent the whole island and the pressure applied on Turkish Cypriots to accept Cyprus's membership application to the EU. The following is the text of a report by Turkish Cypriot radio: President Rauf Denktas has said that during the Cyprus talks held in London by the representatives of the two communities, the Turkish Cypriot political views were explained. He added that there were points on which the two sides agreed and points on which they did not agree. Assessing the London talks to TAK, Denktas said that the Turkish Cypriots explained their position on their equality, on their sovereignty rights and on principles such as the system of guarantees . He added: In connection with membership of the EU, the Greek Cypriots were told that this would not happen unless Cyprus were united and unless the conditions envisaged by international agreement were created. Denktas explained that joining the EU before the status of the Turkish Cypriots is determined would mean placing their neck under the guillotine. He stressed that if the Greek Cypriots joined the EU under the present conditions, the solution of the Cyprus problem would become impossible. He pointed out that the Turkish Cypriots were under pressure to join in the process of the Greek Cypriots' membership of the EU. He stressed that this was incompatible with the relevant UN Security Council resolution and that it would only serve to spoil the Greek Cypriots' chances and make the solution of the Cyprus problem more difficult. Denktas noted that the two sides understood each in its own way the issues placed on the negotiating table and that they agreed on certain points. He went on to say that there were issues on which the sides failed to agree and which both leaders should assess. He added that he would hold a new meeting with party leaders to assess these issues. Denktas charged the Greek Cypriot administration of still claiming to represent the entire island. He stressed that this was wrong and that a system should be created that would ensure peace. He added that this would be possible if the rights granted to the Turkish Cypriots by the 1960 agreements were recognized. Denktas reiterated that the aim of the Greek Cypriots was to join the EU, not to establish a federation. He described the Greek Cypriot argument that if they accepted the sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriots the latter would not unite with them as rubbish.
The Guardian
May 23, 1995 SECTION: THE GUARDIAN FOREIGN PAGE; Pg. 8 LENGTH: 760 words HEADLINE: CYPRIOTS HOLD HUSH TALKS ABOUT TALKS BYLINE: Ian Black Diplomatic Editor BODY:
TALKS aimed at breaking the Cyprus impasse began in London yesterday with low expectations, despite United States and British backing for a big push to end the conflict by enticing Greeks and Turks into new relationships with the European Union.
The Cypriot parties and their sponsors confirmed that negotiations on ending the 20-year conflict were under way at a secret location, but would give no details. "This is meant to be secret diplomacy," a Cyprus High Commission official said.
Yet the Cypriot president, Glafcos Clerides, broke the news blackout, saying in Nicosia that the US and Britain had seen some common ground during a recent meeting between President Clinton's special envoy, Richard Beattie, and the Turkish prime minister, Tansu Ciller.
Mr Clerides sounded a note of pessimism. "I do not think that is enough for (direct) talks to begin, so they suggested this be explored through secret talks," he said. "I do not expect anything at present."
The Cyprus government confirmed that its representatives are the attorney -general, Alecos Markides, and Stella Souliotis, a former justice minister.
Their negotiating partners, Ergun Olgun and Necati Munir Ertekun, advisers to the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, were spotted by a journalist entering the Turkish embassy in London yesterday.
Signs of pressure from Ankara came with reports that Mrs Ciller had told Mr Denktash last week that Turkey - the only country to recognise the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - could no longer subsidise it.
The aim of the London talks is to find common ground for Mr Clerides and Mr Denktash to meet and conclude a final agreement. They last met in October, when UN-sponsored talks broke down, mainly because of Mr Denktash's insistence on international recognition of his state, set up in 1983.
Cyprus was invaded and its northern part occupied by Turkish forces in 1974. The UN has proposed reunification as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, but talks have sputtered along inconclusively for years.
The new elements are the EU agreement to start talks on accession for Cyprus after the 1996 Maastricht review conference, and the EU customs union agreement with Turkey, currently suspended because of human rights abuses and Turkey's incursion into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. "For the first time we have the real ingredients for a deal," an EU diplomat said.
Mr Denktash opposes Cyprus joining the EU unless the Turkish and Greek communities form a federation and Ankara becomes a full EU member.
Agence France Presse
May 25, 1995 05:24 Eastern Time SECTION: International news LENGTH: 200 words HEADLINE: Israel skirts Arab boycott via Cyprus: report DATELINE: JERUSALEM, May 25 BODY: Israel exports 200 million dollars worth of goods to Arab countries via Cyprus to beat the Arab boycott, a newspaper reported Thursday. Israeli goods are imported by off-shore companies in Cyprus and sold on with new labelling and packaging which bear no traces of real origin, the Haaretz newspaper said. "Arab countries are interested in agricultural produce out of season such as mangoes and flowers as well as household electricals and some chemicals," a Cypriot business told the daily. Haaretz gave the example of Israeli lager Maccabi which is sold to some Arab countries under the Eagle brand name. Israel's official exports to Cyprus reached 38 million dollars in 1994, but the figure did not include transit goods. ms/bp/jkb AFP
Financial Times
May 25, 1995, Thursday SECTION: Pg. 2 LENGTH: 849 words HEADLINE: Time runs short for Greek sell-off: Disposal of the state shipyard is the most serious test of a troubled policy BYLINE: By KERIN HOPE BODY:
Mr Giorgos Kontakis, president of Greece's most militant trade union, maintains that he and his fellow workers have the political muscle to prevent the Socialist government privatising Hellenic Shipyards in accordance with a European Union directive.
'We blocked two previous attempts to sell off our yard. This time we have an alternative proposal, to take an equity stake ourselves. If it's not accepted, there will be trouble,' says Mr Kontakis.
The disposal of Hellenic Shipyards, the largest shipbuilding and repair unit in the eastern Mediterranean, marks the most serious test so far of the governing Panhellenic Socialist Movement's (Pasok) commitment to unbundling the state's holdings.
Hellenic's 3,000 workers are backed by a hardline faction in Pasok which opposes both outright sales of state-controlled corporations and partial privatisations through flotations of minority stakes on the Athens stock exchange.
In recent months, the government has postponed indefinitely the sale of 25 per cent of the state telecoms company, OTE, through the Athens stock exchange because of political opposition. It has also frozen a planned flotation of DEP, the holding company for state-owned oil refineries and petrol station chains.
The sale of Cassandra Mines in northern Greece to TVX Gold of Canada for Dr11bn (Dollars 47m), agreed in March, has been stalled because of protests by the 800-member workforce over plans to cut 300 jobs in return for a commitment by the new owners to invest in a gold extraction unit.
But time is running short at Hellenic, given the European Commission's June deadline for selling off or shutting down the yard, under the terms of the EU's seventh shipping directive which ends subsidies for state-owned yards.
Greece has already delayed the sale for more than three years, so the deadline is unlikely to be extended further, a senior industry ministry official said.
Mr Christos Rokofyllos, industry under-secretary, faces a dilemma that has grown familiar since Greece's economic planners decided in 1990 that privatising more than 40 inefficient, debt-burdened state corporations was crucial to reducing a swollen public sector deficit.
He must decide whether to accept the only bid for Hellenic, an offer of Dr16.5bn from Peraticos, a London-based Greek ship-owning group, or start procedures for liquidating the yard and auctioning off its assets.
The Peraticos group, in co-operation with Ishikawajima, the Japanese shipbuilders, has also offered to spend Dr25.5bn on modernising the yard. New investment was neglected after Hellenic was taken over by ETVA, a state development bank, from its founder, ship-owner Stavros Niarchos.
The offer includes a commitment to operate the yard for at least five years in return for a debt write-off of around Dr80bn, equivalent to more than 90 per cent of Hellenic's accumulated debts.
A deal would ensure that Hellenic completes three German-designed MEKO-class frigates under construction for the Greek navy as well as programmes to build rolling stock for the Greek railway organisation and the Athens metro.
But the political cost would be high as the group's business plan calls for cutting about 1,000 jobs in a depressed area close to Athens. Around Scaramanga, where the shipyard is situated, unemployment is several percentage points higher than the official 10 per cent.
Nor has the Peraticos group yet established a track record in shipbuilding. It is still struggling to make a profit from Eleusis shipyards, acquired from a state-owned bank in another privatisation three years ago.
Mr Costi Peraticos, a director at Eleusis, says the group would boost Hellenic's productivity by introducing Japanese labour practices, increase income by carrying out more ship repairs, and eventually build smaller vessels for Greek owners.
'There's a potential niche market for small-sized tankers and product carriers, especially with the economies of scale generated by operating two nearby yards,' he says.
The counter-proposal submitted by Mr Kontakis calls for ETVA to retain a 51 per cent stake in the yard while offering the remaining 49 per cent to the union. He says: 'This yard already makes an operating profit and without the burden of debt repayment we could compete with any private company.'
For Greece's budget planners, revenues raised from disposals are of less importance in curbing the deficit than the savings gained by shedding payroll obligations and writing off large amounts of debt accumulated by state-owned enterprises.
However, fewer than 20 privatisations have been completed, partly because investors' prospects for reviving loss-making state enterprises are limited by years of poor management by political appointees.
One former privatisation adviser says: 'Because managers come and go according to the politicians' whims, companies up for sale are either close to going out of business or, like Hellenic Shipyards, are effectively being run by unions that object in principle to new management practices.'
Source: Reuter Textline Kathimerini
May 24, 1995 HEADLINE: GREECE: GOVERNMENT PLANS TO FLOAT 10% OF OTE IN AUTUMN BODY:
The government is planning to sell 10% of telecoms company OTE on the stock exchange in the autumn, according to reports. The method of the flotation and the price that will ensure the best possible return are already under examination. The government believes that domestic investors will take up the offer but will also welcome foreign institutional investors.
Since the offer will be addressed to Greek investors, the criteria by which OTE is valued will be different from those which would be applied by foreign investors (for example no country risk will be taken into consideration). Consequently, OTE is likely to go to the stock exchange with a value significantly higher than the Dr 1,100bn which would have been the upper limit acceptable to foreign investors.
(Original article approx 400 words) - KATHIMERINI, May 24, 1995, P1,P21
Global Financial Markets
May 12, 1995 LENGTH: 609 words HEADLINE: Greece Finance: Telecoms Privatisation Stalled BODY:
Greece's privatisation programme appears to have been put on the back burner, according to the EIU's latest Country Report on Greece. When the Hellenic Telecommunications (OTE) share sale was postponed last November, the government said it would go ahead early in 1995. There has been no further work done to prepare the company for sale and it would now be the autumn before any sensible offering could be made. Market sources say the government has put off the idea until 1996. The latest suggestion was that 5-10% of the shares might be floated on the Athens Stock Exchange. Prospective foreign buyers would have to bid via local brokers or perhaps buy through a scheme of depository receipts. It was also announced that the state would privatise the Public Petroleum Corporation (DEP) towards the end of this year, but again there is no evidence of any preparations. Its president, Christos Verelis, announcing improved 1994 profits, said that a plan was "in the making" but would be realised only when there were favourable conditions in both the petroleum and the stock markets. DEP is both the state oil-trading company and a holding company for two refineries, an exploration company and the Public Gas Corporation (DEPA). DEP's group profits rose to Dr44.5bn compared with Dr24.5bn in 1993. It invested Dr60bn in 1994 and anticipates spending Dr145bn in 1995, of which Dr108bn will be on the natural gas pipeline and distribution networks. But the Ministry of Industry has sold the state-controlled Kassandara gold mine at Stratoni, Halkidiki in northern Greece, to TVX Gold of Canada for a reported price of Dr11bn plus commitments to invest Dr204m. The company has promised to keep 550 of 880 jobs at the mine. However, the leadership of the village of Stratoni, most of whose inhabitants work at the mines, has written to the Canadian ambassador saying that it will use "all means" to prevent the new owners from taking over unless all jobs are guaranteed. And the government has put to parliament legislation to privatise the Hellenic Shipyards at Skaramanga. This follows a ruling from the European Commission that the yard must either be sold or closed. The workforce at the yard has demanded that the state retain control and has said it would accept a wage freeze during a five-year restructuring programme. It has refused to let assessors into the yard to prepare details for a tender which is supposed to close by May 4. The deputy industry minister, Christos Rokofyllos, has said he will resign if a buyer implements mass dismissals. But he has also appealed to the workforce to cooperate with the privatisation; otherwise the yard will be closed and all the employees will lose their jobs. Meanwhile, the government has presented a draft bill governing the media which contains clauses to combat concentration of ownership. Publishers will be limited to owning one morning, one afternoon and one Sunday newspaper. The maximum individual shareholding in a broadcasting enterprise will be 25%. Companies or shareholders in one television network will not be permitted to participate in another. Radio and television stations will have to comply with broadcast licensing conditions. The majority of those on air today are unlicensed. The bill also sets down a code of conduct for radio and television stations. Finally, the European Commission has threatened Greece with a fine of Ecu545m, nearly 20% of annual Common Agricultural Policy receipts, unless the government properly investigates and cracks down on false claims for cotton subsidies.
PR Newswire
May 18, 1995, Thursday SECTION: Financial News LENGTH: 309 words HEADLINE: CASINO MAGIC OPENS PORTO CARRAS, GREECE, CASINO BODY:
Casino Magic Corp. (Nasdaq: CMAG) said today that it has opened its casino in Porto Carras, Greece. The casino is being operated by Casino Magic under a 49 percent partnership with Touristiki Georgiki Exagogiki S.A. (T.G.E.), a Greek company which owns the Porto Carras resort property. BAY SAINT LOUIS, Miss., May 18 The Porto Carras casino, the first American-style casino in Greece, opened with approximately 750 gaming positions featuring slot machines and popular table games including roulette, blackjack, baccarat and craps. The casino is approximately 20,000 square feet, and is located in the Sithonia Beach Hotel in the Porto Carras resort complex. Marlin F. Torguson, chairman, said, "The Grand Opening of the Porto Carras casino attracted record crowds. We're very excited about the tremendous response to the opening and expect the casino to make a material contribution to Casino Magic's operating results in the second half of this year." The casino is in the Porto Carras resort complex which includes the five-star Meliton Hotel and the four-star Sithonia Beach Hotel, located approximately 60 miles southeast of Thessaloniki, Greece, near Neos Mamaras on the Aegean Sea. The resort complex features a total of more than 1,200 rooms and suites, a conference center, 14 restaurant and lounge facilities accommodating more than 2,500 patrons, retail shops, an 18-hole championship golf course, riding school, tennis courts, indoor games, indoor and outdoor theaters, water sports and a marina with berths for 180 vessels. Casino Magic Corp., a Minnesota corporation with principal offices in Bay Saint Louis, Miss., also operates gaming casinos in Bay Saint Louis and Biloxi, Miss., Deadwood, S.D., and Neuquen City and San Martin de los Andes, Argentina. CONTACT: Doug Ewing of Swenson
Copyright 1995 Agence France Presse Agence France Presse
May 22, 1995 SECTION: Informations Generales LENGTH: 266 words HEADLINE: Deces de Theodore Papazoglou, figure de proue du syndicalisme grec DATELINE: ATHENES BODY: Theodore Papazoglou, figure de proue pendant un demi-siecle du syndicalisme grec, est decede dans l'ile de Crete (Grece, sud de la mer Egee) a l'age de 90 ans, a annonce, lundi, son entourage. Surnomme "Pangalos" (le tres beau) pour avoir soutenu et obtenu les plus importantes revendications du mouvement ouvrier en Crete --en avance en matiere d'acquis sociaux par rapport au reste du pays -- Theodore Papazoglou a reussi a imposer la journee de travail de 8 heures, a l'issue du soulevement ouvrier en Crete en pleine dictature (1935). Entre des 1927 au parti communiste grec (KKE), il fut l'artisan du mouvement cretois contre la dictature de Ioannis Metaxas (1935-1940) en Grece. Pour ses convictions politiques, il a passe 33 ans et 8 mois en prison, sans compter sa deportation dans les iles grecques, en compagnie d'autres communistes. Ayant tres tot compris le besoin de democratisation du KKE, il a lutte au sein de ce parti pour la mise en place de procedures de controle. N'ayant pas ete entendu, il quitta le KKE, en 1966, tout en continuant a conseiller et critiquer les positions autoritaires de ce parti --extremement fidele au PC sovietique-- notamment au moment de l'intervention militaire de l'armee de l'URSS en Tchecoslovaquie (aout 1968).
All Rights Reserved
Daily Variety
May 25, 1995 Thursday SECTION: REVIEW LENGTH: 501 words HEADLINE: Ulysses' Gaze (TO VLEMMA TOU ODYSSEA) ( Greek -French-Italian -- Drama -- Color) BYLINE: David Stratton BODY: A Theo Angelopoulos Film Prods.-Greek Film Center (Athens)/Paradis Films-La Generale d'Images-La Sept Cinema (Paris)/Basic Cinematografica-Istituto Luce-RAI (Rome) co-production, in association with Tele Munchen, Concorde Films, Channel 4. (International sales: Roissy Films, Paris.) Produced by Theo Angelopoulos. Executive producers, Costas Lambopoulos, Marc Soustras. Directed by Theo Angelopoulos. Screenplay, Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra, Petros Markaris. Camera (color), Yorgos Arvanitis; editor, Giannis Tsitsopoulos; music, Eleni Karaindrou; production design, Yorgos Patsas, Mile Nicolic; costumes, Yorgos Ziakas; sound (Dolby), Thanassis Arvanitis; line producer, Phoebe Economopoulos; associate producer, Herbert Kloiber. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (competing), May 24, 1995. Running time: 177 min. Harvey Keitel Naomi Levy and the "Wives"... Maia Morgenstern Ivo Levy ... Erland Josephson Taxi Driver ... Thanassis Vengos Nikos ... Yorgos Michalokopoulos Old Woman ... Dora Volonaki Maverick Greek director Theo Angelopoulos' latest epic is a tremendously challenging and demanding work that will leave audiences who latch onto its style and mood satisfied but utterly drained. The three-hour pic, as usual with this helmer, takes its own sweet time to make a devastating statement about the tragic Bosnian conflict; it's certainly not for the impatient viewer. Despite the presence of Harvey Keitel in the lead role, it will take a brave distrib to take a risk on this prestige item Stateside. Theatrical release in other Anglo countries is also iffy, but in Europe the director's rep and the powerful subject of the film should guarantee specialized release. The Odyssey theme suggested in the title (but nowhere else in the film) is just the starting point for a journey across the Balkans from Athens to Sarajevo by a Greek-American filmmaker, never named in the film but called simply "A" in the credits. Keitel gives another of his gutsy performances as this obsessive character. A has returned to Greece after a 35-year absence because he's making a documentary about the work of the legendary Manakia brothers, pioneer filmmakers at the turn of the century who traveled through the Balkans, ignoring national and ethnic strife, to record ordinary people (especially craftsmen) on film. A has heard that three reels of undeveloped film shot by the brothers exist in the Sarajevo Film Archive, and is determined to locate it, despite the conflict in Bosnia. Along the way he has a variety of encounters. He helps an old woman cross into Albania in search of the sister she hasn't seen in 47 years; in Albania, he meets a woman who accompanies him on the train to Bucharest, where flashbacks intro A's mother. In one of the film's most magical sequences, which unfolds entirely in one lengthy shot, A's family celebrates the new year in Constanza over a period of five years (1945-50), during which period the Communist Party extends its grip on the bourgeoisie. Another striking sequence depicts a giant statue of Lenin being transported on a boat down the river to Belgrade. In the Serbian capital, A meets an old journalist pal and they drink to now-dead friends, including giants of cinema such as Murnau, Dreyer and Welles. Finally, two hours into the pic, A arrives in shattered Sarajevo. Here he meets Ivo Levy, curator of the Sarajevo Film Archive, whose heavily damaged premises and burned-out cinema still house a priceless collection of great films. Levy does indeed have the missing three reels, and his daughter, Naomi, is instantly attracted to A; but Angelopoulos provides a conclusion that's exceedingly downbeat and pessimistic. It soon becomes clear that the director is using the filmmaker's journey merely as a McGuffin to explore the seeds of the Balkan conflict and to decry the savagery taking place in that part of the world. The Sarajevo scenes are profoundly moving. The film was shot in winter, with plenty of rain, mist and snow, giving it a palpably chilly feel. It's brilliantly photographed by Yorgos Arvanitis, whose ongoing collaboration with the director has provided some of the most luminous cinematography seen in recent years. Keitel brings great strength to his catalyst role, and Erland Josephson has an innate nobility as the Sarajevo archivist. (Josephson took over the role when Gian Maria Volonte died during production; the film is dedicated to the late actor). Maia Morgenstern plays all the principal female characters and successfully gives nuanced shadings to her different roles. Technical credits are superb down the line, with Eleni Karaindrou's plaintive music score especially noteworthy.
The Guardian
May 25, 1995 SECTION: THE GUARDIAN HOME PAGE; Pg. 2 LENGTH: 734 words HEADLINE: KEITEL SUPERB IN A MONUMENTAL FABLE; Cannes festival review BYLINE: Jonathan Romney BODY:
Ulysses' Gaze
Director, Theo Angelopoulos
A COMPETITION film's reception in the morning press show should not be taken too seriously - as witness the booing that met Terence Davies's superb The Neon Bible. On the other hand, if a film wins the rapturous applause that greeted Ulysses' Gaze - particularly after a slow, sombre three hours - then it is a fair bet that it stands a good chance of the Palme d'Or.
Theo Angelopoulos's film weighs in as the year's first really heavyweight offering, a monumental attempt to tackle questions about the state of central Europe and about the state of cinema in its centenary year. And considering Emir Kusturica's highly-tipped and equally long Underground addresses similar questions, it mght be a close-run race.
Angelopoulos's modern day Ulysses is a Greek film-maker living in the States (Harvey Keitel), who comes home to attend a screening of a film of his that proves controversial enough to provoke torchlit parades and a show of riot police. We never find out why, because Keitel is on to bigger game - he's out to track down some lost reels of silent film-makers the Manakis brothers, whose pioneering work apparently illustrates a unity of Balkan spirit. What Keitel is after on his voyage of discovery is a sense of the innocence with which Ulysses once viewed the world.
What he finds is hardly cheering. His journey takes him from northern Greece to a snowy, barren Albania, to Macedonia and Bucharest, down the Danube on a boat laden with a colossal, dismembered statue of Lenin, and finally to a devastated Sarajevo. En route he meets several incarnations of the same woman - the saturnine Maia Morgenstern - whom he loves and loses over and over again. The story is the stuff of fable, and the veteran Greek director treats it with high stylisation.
Angelopoulos has made one of the great landscape films, making stark beauty out of the dereliction of Albania and Sarajevo, but the landscapes are sometimes more affecting than the figures in them.
A stumbling point for many viewers will be the stilted blankness of the acting; not all the players are that good at dealing with the mix of languages. But Keitel is superb - he's taken on the mantle of gravitas that Burt Lancaster once wore, and he gives the film's vaporous tendencies the magnetic centre they need.
Ulysses' Gaze may at moments feel like a Greek monument to be admired, rather than an experience to move you. But if you're prepared to weather the full thing, the cumulative effect is as transfixing as prime Tarkovsky. After the fast-food atmosphere of last year's festival, it would be good to see a substantial offering like this being properly celebrated.