The first of many achingly beautiful shots in this new work (the first in a trilogy) from the great Greek director Angelopoulos shows his trademark approach to character as inseparable from land and history. In 1919, Greek refugees from Odessa plant themselves on an estuary of a great river near Thessaloniki and start life over again. In the masterfully choreographed saga that unfolds, the river will be a border, a mirror, a passageway, and finally an end to this small community whose tragic destiny follows that of their country as a river etches its shores. The story centers on Spyros, his son (unnamed), and Eleni, an orphan they have taken under their wing and who, as time leaps forward, becomes the boy's lover. Haunted by Spyros, who is himself obsessed with Eleni, the lovers begin what will be a lifetime of running-away from an Oedipal destiny, and into the flames of Greece's civil war and then the world war.