The cinematic memory of the Left movement’s defeat in the Greek Civil War: I kathodos ton ennia/The descent of the nine from page to screen
Abstract
Christos Siopachas’s I kathodos ton ennia/The descent of the nine (1984), an adaptation of Thanasis Valtinos’s homonymous novella (1963), belongs to a distinct group of New Greek Cinema’s (NEK) politico-historical films, which contributed to the formation of the Greek Civil War’s social memory during the first years of the post-dictatorship period (Metapolitefsi). This article examines the intertextual relationship between the film and its source text, while the main focus is on the representation of the Left movement’s defeat. The analysis draws on theories which, transcending the fidelity to the source text as an evaluative aesthetic criterion, approach adaptations as discursive practices situated in specific historical, ideological and cultural contexts. In this respect, the article also discusses the ideologized post-dictatorship reception of Valtinos’s text as a leftist testimony, while acknowledging it as a key element of the film’s wider cultural context.
Article Details
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Βαγγελοκώστας Γ. (2022). The cinematic memory of the Left movement’s defeat in the Greek Civil War: I kathodos ton ennia/The descent of the nine from page to screen. Theater Polis. An Interdisciplinary Journal for Theatre and the Arts, 64–78. https://doi.org/10.12681/.30712
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Τα πνευματικά δικαιώματα των δημοσιευμένων άρθρων ανήκουν στο περιοδικό. Απαγορεύεται η μερική ή/και ολική αναδημοσίευση κειμένων που δημοσιεύονται στο περιοδικό, χωρίς την συγκατάθεση της των Επιμελητών ή της Συντακτικής Επιτροπής και επιβάλλεται αναφορά στην πρώτη δημοσίευσή τους στο περιοδικό Θεάτρου Πόλις.
