A Song is Not Enough

Colour, 35 mm
Greece, 2003, 118 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

Set in two time planes, the film deals with the difficulty of coming to terms with past wrongs. Olga was nine when, in 1972, the authorities arrested her mother Irena, a theatre actress, for subversive activities and locked her up in Korydallos prison. The desperate Olga didn´t understand at the time what was happening and considered her mother´s disappearance as betrayal. Nor did she get on with her bohemian father, from whom Irena sought a divorce, and her childhood trauma continues to haunt her. Olga finds a way out of the vicious cycle when she discovers the story of the old man who experienced a fate similar to that of Irena and her fellow prisoners. Reconciliation and forgiveness are sometimes harder to bear than embittered hatred, but the story about how difficult it is to express love, also speaks of hope… Director Elissavet Chronopoulou had already made a name for herself as a documentrarist, and her first film Lean on Me won several prizes in 1995 such as the Greek Culture Ministry Award.

About the director

Elissavet Chronopoulou (b. 1981, Athens) graduated from Stavrakos Film School and began her career in film in 1987 as an editor. In 1995 she began directing as well, shooting the shorts Lean on Me and Yesterday Afternoon, the documentary Political Confinement in 20th Century Greece and the TV film Three Wishes.  A Song Is Not Enough is her feature debut.