Koundouros's first feature following the fall of the Junta was a bold treatment of one of the key tragedies in twentieth-century Greek history: the expulsion in 1922 of the Greeks and Armenians of Asia Minor by the Turks in concert with the Germans. 1922 is "a ballad on the subject of violence and terror" that echoes uncomfortably today's world situation. A genocidal war against the Greek civilian population was conducted while Greece's allies-Great Britain, France, the U.S., as well as the Red Cross-looked on, a massive betrayal whose mournful affect has marked the Greek culture and temperament. The film focuses on two women, Loukia, the wife of a prosperous merchant, and Antigone, a young teacher. They will be reduced to nameless figures in the forced long march across the mountains and salt plains of Anatolia, a siege of hunger and thirst, rape and out-and-out massacre that few survived. Following its many prizes at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, 1922 was scandalously banned in the interest of Greco-Turkish relations.