Borders, boundaries, and the many-layered loneliness of emigration are a constant theme in Greek cinema, especially heightened by the oppressive era of the Junta. In The Photograph, set in 1971, a young Greek Macedonian, released from a long prison term under the Colonels, leaves for Paris, taking with him a found photograph of one of his country's popular singers. Moving in with a distant cousin in Paris, he tells this hard-working, aging bachelor that the image is of his sister, thus kindling a long-distance love-by-deception. More lies and misunderstandings follow, setting up a series of events that move beyond the men's control. Nicos Papatakis, himself a Greek of the Diaspora, presents a startling portrait of male interdependency and exploitation. "The Photograph represents a complex meditation on photographic reality in decidedly human terms; the photo changes from souvenir to family portrait to a kind of symbol that these characters will finally struggle to possess" (Chicago Film Festival).