Original subtitles

The civil war in Greece lasted 4 years (1945-1949) and ended with the victory

of the Royalist's Army, reinforced by English and American forces.

With the end of the war, 100,000 fighters of the Democratic Army,

along with their families, crossed the northern border of the country

and found their way into the young Socialist Republics.

Because of the extent of the war and the decay of the country,

this has been the bloodiest civil war of our century.

The 5:30 passenger train from Budapest now arriving on Track 3.

See, Vassiliaki, how the acacia have grown. They've hidden the village.

Good morning, Rina.

Good day to you, Calliope.

-How did the night shift go? -Oh, just fine.

We planed the trees in 1951. There was just open country here.

All this land planted with corn.

Good morning, Vassili!

Good day to you, Mitro!

Your grandson has grown up. ls he going to Greece with you?

My daugther Rina is getting married tonight, Vassili.

Happy homecoming, Captain!

Happy Homecoming, Comrade!

Sidiropoulos Christos, Sidiropoulou Sultana , Sidiropoulos Giorgos.

Sidiropoulou Akrivi, daughter of Vassilis, born in Russia...

on 12 February 1898.

She came in the village Beloiannis on 31 August 1950.

She was one of the women to held build the village.

Sidiropoulou Akrivi, daughter of Vassilis, wife of Abraham.

What my mother went through.

She lived at No. 7 Mourgana Street. She died on 17 September 1954.

lt'a all written down here, how many came, how many died...

how many went away.

You stayed in Budapest.

When your mother was alive you used to come.

Since then a lot of things have changed.

We built roads, new parks, we planted rose bushes...

Our vines have grown.

Hard years but good.

Since you left the village has filled with Hungarians.

We were 2.000 Greeks and now there are barely 500 left.

We're leaving too, after the wedding.

Our papers have come through. We're going to Thessaloniki.

People are different there. At least they care...

Aunt Aphrodite wrote she found us an apartment.

Tassos will get a job in a machinist's shop...

and if he has to , he can whitewash houses. We'll manage.

Your father is singing again.

Father! After all those years he went back home in 1982.

During the whole journey he didn't sleep a wink.

He just stood there looking out of the window.

Only when we had crossed Yugoslavia he told me:

''We're almost there''.

At the border the policeman asked if he had anything...

to declare...

''What do you think l have'', he replied abruptly.

At dawn we reached the fields near Larissa.

Suddenly l hear someone singing.

l wake up, and it was him.

He had gone out in the corridor and was singing.

Others came out.

Someone said to him:

Why the hell are you singing so early in the morning?

He didn't reply. He continued singing.

l went near him and saw him crying.

A hard man. l had never seen him cry.

You know, l was Rina's best friend.

She wrote and told me you had split up.

She has to go back.

Why? She was born here. We went to school together.

Doesn't she feel she belongs here in the village?

Greeks built it. Why are you leaving?

The village will die. Your feasts, your music...

your dances... Nothing will remain.

What's your football team?

Honvenek.

-You are from Budapest? -Yes.

We used to have the best team in the country here...

''Partisan''. My father used to play.

Now that our people have gone, nothing's left.

What's your father's name?

Achilles... and my mother's lrene. And yours?

My father is called Christos and my mother Yutka.

Did you hear about Mitsos Mitropoulos?

Didn't he live in Budapest?

Yes. He went back to Greece with his wife.

He didn't find anything. They had taken everything...

The houses, the fieldes... what could he claim and from whom?

They went to Kosani, to Thessaloniki, to Serres...

no work anywhere. Who wants such a wreck?

Their children had stayed behind in Budapest.

So Mitsos and his wife killed themselves.

They fell into a well and drowned.

Dear fellow countrymen.

Permit me to greet you and welcome you...

to this small Greek village...

which bears the name of the Greek freedom fighter...

Nikos Beloiannis.

Please convey our own greetings...

to our fellow Greeks...

the 300.000 migrants in West Germany.

This village is located 45 klms south of Budapest...

in the heart of the Hungarian plains...

4 klms from the Danube...

at an altitude of 125 metres above the Baltic.

The people who built it arrived on 26 May 1950.

Construction began and continued at a brisk pace...

in order to house the Greek political refugees...

who found themselves in Hungary...

temporarily, as we then thought...

and not as permanent residents.

And so on the 31st of December 1950...

1620 political refugees settled in our village.

From then on, the number started to decline...

so that today there are only about 500 of us left.

And we'll go down to Dragon Lakes...

and we'll take the milk to Yannena...

where we can get a good price for it.

She names her Maroula and brought her up...

like a princess.

The older Maroula grew the pretter she became...

and when she was eight years old, her mother...

sent her to school.

One day on her way back an old man appeared before her.

His face shone like the sun.

''Maroula'', he told her, ''tell your mother''...

the time has come for her to keep her vow''.

''And what's your name?''

''Your mother knows'', said the old man and disappeared.

As soon as Maroula got home...

she told her mother of the strange old man's message.

Her mother turned pale because she understood...

that the old man was the sun and told her daughter:...

''When you come across him again tell him you forgot''.

The next day the old man again appeared before Maroula.

So he asked her...

The swallows fly away how heavy the nights are.

Why don't you come, beloved, to see my sad heart...

My love's bed is of white poplar...

it bends like the branch of the poplar when l sit.

l too lost my mother when l was very young.

She wasn't there for my wedding.

They took her in 1941.

l stood at the door. She kissed me and said:

''Don't cry, when l return l'll bring you a coat.''

She never came back and that's the way l remember her...

that she'll come back and bring me a coat.

l met your mother at the Partisan's Hospital.

She had been wounded by a shell.

l was alone in the ward.

One day the airplanes came and started bombing.

Everyone ran away and left me alone.

l dragged myself down the stairs.

l reached the front door.

The airplanes were making a terrible noise.

Then l became scared.

The shelters were in the fields opposite.

l could see everyone looking at me...

but l didn't have the courage to run.

Then your mother ran out and dragged me to safety.

l spent the best years of my life with the partisans...

l have no regrets.

Don't look at me for l have aged.

And my hair has turned white...

My troubles made me grow old...

The sorrows of exile...

l am full of sadness and the earth will swallow me up.

ln what language shall l talk to you?

ln Greek, Hungarian, Slavic?

The fascists were after us for three days and nights...

driving us beyond the border...

so that not one of us remained behind.

Every day at school and at home they told us...

we were Greeks...

that we fought for out mother country...

but our stepmother country sent us into exile...

One day we would all go back...

that's what they kept telling us.

Which Greece were they talking about?

l was born and grew up here in Hungary.

l considered it my country, but my heart beat faster...

when l thought of Greece.

ln Greece they call us Hungarians...

and here we are Greeks. Foreigners everywhere.

Those who were born here won't find a mother country.

l went to Thessaloniki for good and worked there...

as a nurse.

Here l studied agriculture... no use to me there.

Well l'm going to stay here.

What would l do in the mother country?

l don't even know the language.

Adorn our bride...

She'll go elsewhere to live...

far from her dear mother...

She'll go elsewhere to live...

far away... in foreign parts.

Farewell dear mother till l take my leave...

Farewell dear father till l take my leave...

Farewell dear brothers till l take my leave...

We were closed in, there was snow evereywhere.

lt was after we had been cut off.

There was no way we could get through.

We ate all the mules.

Other brigades met up with us.

We came out below Olympus and reached the seashore.

Once again l was left behind.

l was cut off from the column...

They appeared above...

They were all conscripts.

l had no one, where was l to go?

l approached a river.

There were army troops there.

l went to the edge of the river.

l threw away the bullets, a hand grenade...

l threw them all in the water and...

l carried my child piggy-back.

As l approached them, they didn't recognize me.

''Where are you going, auntie?'', said one of them.

''l want to go in the fields.''

l passed through them. They didn't speak to me.

There where l spent the night...

there was an officer who had said:

''A woman with a baby will pass by...''

''Bring her up to the commissariat.''

l passed through in the morning...

and found people l didn't know.

A soldier told me: ''Where are you going comrade?''

l told him: ''Do l ask you where you're going?

Stay where you are my good man and let me go about my business.''

He replied: ''Listen comrade the officer asked whether...

you are the woman with the baby who got cut off from the column.''

And l told him: ''l am''.

''How was life in the partisan army?''

''How do you think it was? There was no bread...

we were full of lice... with a baby to feed...

and without a place to stand, near the battle lines.''

''You fought with the baby?''

''What fought? l carried the ammunition on my back...

and when l came into Albania in 1949...

my shoulders were covered with sacks from the tope.''

''Did you ever go back to your village?''

''No, never.''

''Do you want to go?''

''What can l tell you... They're all dead...

l don't want to go back.''

''Why, auntie?''

''Because they wiped out five members of my family.

They killed my husband, my brother-in-law...

another brother-in-law and my father-in-law.

They took them from the village...

and beat them to death...

and that's why l am in mourning all these years.''

The old tombs are over there...

Sidiropoulou Akrivi, daughter of Vassilis...

aged 56... my mother...

People who have suffered... many died in the beginning.

They took us by cargo boat from Albania...

thirteen days in the hold without seeing the light of day.

Afraid the British catch us.

We got to Poland sick to our stomachs.

There we boarded some trains for Czechoslovakia...

where we reached Prague.

We were taken to some camps, some of us here, others there.

You looking at the photograph, Vassilaki?

l will tell you a story you can tell the other children.

The person in that photograph...

is our youngest brother.

His name was Charis.

He was born without fingers.

When he grew up he learnt to dig and plow...

better than us.

During the occupation he joined the resistance.

ln the partisan army, he was the division's sharpshooter.

Everyone loved him.

During one battle with the Germans...

the partisans were surrounded and he was captured.

The Germans couldn't believe he had no fingers.

They took him to their headquarters.

The German commander made him compete...

with a company of elite German sharpshooters.

Charis won.

The commander pinned a medal on Charis' breast.

But the same night, they took Charis from his bed...

and shot him in the courtyard.

Can train 58322 depart?

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Here are the papers.

Thank you.

The bill of lading, the export permit...

Veterinary Service certificate, permit...

from the National Bank of Hungary for 26 sheep...

and a goat with destination Thessaloniki.

Yes... l'm taking them with me...

they've been vaccinated and everything...

Would your father sell you?

Would he give you away?

That's what l told them. l went to Budapest...

There was a guy with glasses, he laughed when l told him...

''Why are you laughing comrade?

You don't know anything.''

Sign here please.

Thank you.

l would go every Friday they would tell me...

come back next week.

lt dragged on for two months.

The third month l asked Marina who works...

for the Peoples Council...

and she wrote a letter in Hungarian to Comrade Kadar Yanos.

She must have done a good job...

because when they read it they didn't laugh...

and they told me to come on Wednesday.

''Ah, that's a good sign'', l thought...

''they didn't tell me Friday.''

l went on Wednesday... l got the papers...

Here they are.

l left the flock when l joined the partisans.

Now l'll go back home and find them again...

l'll fix the sheepfold.

The bride is for sale! Who will buy her?

The bride is for sale! Who will buy her?

Congratulations!

Thank you and Happy Homecoming.

We've finished, their papers are all stamped...

and in order.

l've loaded them... l've put them food, water...

they'll make the trip home just fine.

l'm leaving tomorrow with the same train.

Have a good trip!

Happy Homecoming to you all. Happy Homecoming!

Come sit beside me, take my hand...

And ask my heart and my soul...

l stopped at the fountain...

l'm asking for your hand...

And there on that rock l'll become your helpmate.

We'll go to Larissa...

To the dye merchant, to dye your hair...

and to the jeweller's...

A country less scrambled down...

a high mountain cliff...

spinning the wool on her distaff...

her spindle full.

And the country lad looked down on her...

Good day to you my country lass...

And the country lad looked down on her...

From the cliff above...

All the mountains l've crossed...

l've begged to take me...

to take me back...

that l may see my mother again...

and my poor sisters...

that l may see my country...

Oh mountains... my homeland...