Vrettakos' long shadow

Documentary 'A Poet's Estate' tries to revive the memory of the writer

Nikiforos Vrettakos in exile in Switzerland

ATHANASIA Drakopoulou's documentary A Poet's Estate tells the story of lauded Greek poet Nikiforos Vrettakos (1912-1991), drawing from those who knew and loved him and revisiting key places and points in his life. At times - perhaps due to the elusive personality of the poet himself - it feels more like a shadow than a clear portrait.

A Poet's Estate does cover the main points of Vrettakos' life: his birth in a Laconia village; his surprise at seeing how rough and violent town life is; his brief university studies; a long publishing run (1929-1981); his ins and outs with the Communist party - not to mention the state (he went from persecuted leftist to city councillor); his self-imposed exile; his induction into the Athens Academy; high-profile kudos and a final return to the countryside.

The film combines many sources of material, most notably riveting archival footage of Greece from the 1930s to 1970s. However, it seems Vrettakos wasn't often filmed. The viewer sees him mostly as an elderly man in the blurry, grainy footage taken by his son, director Costas Vrettakos. In those often quite beautiful but mysterious shots, he navigates his stone Peloponnese house.

Though clearly well-loved (evident in the often detached awe of even family and friends interviewed), the poet cuts a solitary figure. Vrettakos himself described how he quickly discovered he didn't have much in common with wife Ritsa, though they had two children. The film mentions a longtime mistress, only to later refer to a poem Vrettakos wrote for his wife.

War also tested his beliefs. Vrettakos said of his time as a soldier on the Albanian front in 1940-41: "It's very natural for a poet when he goes to war to have conflicts... particularly if you believed war didn't suit human nature."

His life was often very difficult. Vrettakos' post at the leftist magazine Elefthera Grammata (1947-49) opened him up to persecution after the Civil War. At one point, years later, a friend worried about his mental state because he would often ride the train back and forth between Athens and Piraeus. He suffered greatly during his self-exile in Switzerland and Italy during the dictatorship (1967-74). Vrettakos described himself as a kind of anti-Odysseus in one piece in the early 1970s, saying he was "without an Ithaca, without a companion..."

Though the director surprisingly uses little of Vrettakos' poetry, the details give the greatest sense of the man. "He was a zouzouni (little pest)," a Lakonia auntie recalls of him as a boy. The Vrettakos residence in Piraeus after the Civil War had two exits, another interviewee reveals, in case of police visits. The daughter of a friend holds up a book of poems he wrote on cigarette packs.

Drakopoulou's impressions of Vrettakos coax the viewer into seeking out the poet in his own works.

* The 87-minute ERT and Greek Film Centre co-production is in Greek

Showing at Danaos, Trianon

Marginalised people on film

ON APRIL 19 at noon, the Philip cinema (11 Thasou St) will screen 15 short films made by Greek directors about marginalised social groups. The event was backed by the General Youth Secretariate. For more info ring 210-5203-526 or visit www.dilos.gr

ATHENS NEWS , 18/04/2008, page: A36
Article code: C13283A361