{ "id": "epcm2x924k", "slug": "reconstruction", "title": "Reconstruction", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: 1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "label": "1970s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Reconstruction (Anaparastasi, Αναπαράσταση) is Theo Angelopoulos's 1970 Greek black-and-white feature debut about a magistrate reconstructing a migrant worker's murder by his wife and lover, a landmark of New Greek Cinema.", "snippet": "Reconstruction (Anaparastasi, Αναπαράσταση) is Theo Angelopoulos's 1970 Greek black-and-white feature debut about a magistrate reconstructing a migrant worker's murder by his wife and lover, a landmark of New Greek Cinema.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1970s-films", "markdown": "# Reconstruction\n\n**Reconstruction** (Greek: *Anaparastasi*, Αναπαράσταση; also released as *The Reconstruction* and *Resurrection of a Crime*) is a 1970 Greek black-and-white crime drama directed by Theo Angelopoulos, his first feature film.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396) Set in a depopulated mountain village in Epirus, it follows the official investigation into the murder of a migrant worker by his wife and her lover, and it is described as one of the landmark films that formed the historic phenomenon of New Greek Cinema.[2](https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/RECONSTRUCTION/tte%3A%3A92175ef7166c3694fa812be4887d0e3f)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | *Anaparastasi* (Αναπαράσταση); also known as *Resurrection of a Crime*[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396) |\n| Director and debut | Theo Angelopoulos's first feature; premiered 24 September 1970 at the Thessaloniki Film Festival[3](https://letterboxd.com/film/reconstruction-1970/) |\n| Story | A migrant worker returns from West Germany to his village in Epirus and is murdered by his wife and her lover; a magistrate reconstructs the crime, and the murder itself is never shown[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396) • [2](https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/RECONSTRUCTION/tte%3A%3A92175ef7166c3694fa812be4887d0e3f) |\n| Key crew | Screenplay by Angelopoulos with Stratis Karras and Thanassis Valtinos; cinematography by Giorgos Arvanitis; editing by Takis Davlopoulos; production by Giorgis Samiotis for the Greek Film Centre[3](https://letterboxd.com/film/reconstruction-1970/) |\n| Awards | Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actress and the Critics' Award at Thessaloniki; Georges Sadoul Award and Best Foreign Film at Hyères, and a FIPRESCI Special Mention at Berlin[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/reconstruction/) |\n| Standing | Named the third-best Greek film in history by the Greek Film Critics Association in 1986[5](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Reconstruction?id=FE6910BB9B4655D4MV) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and structure\n\nThe film opens with an off-screen narrator describing its setting: Tymphaia, a village in the foothills of the Pindus mountains where people have lived since classical times. The population ran to about 1,250 inhabitants in 1939, but by 1965 only 85 remained.[6](https://www.arsenal-berlin.de/en/berlinale-forum/archive/program-archive/2020/forum-50-anniversary-program/anaparastasi-1/) Costas Ghoussis, an emigrant who has worked in [West Germany](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-germany), returns to this half-deserted village. His wife Eleni, played by Toula Stathopoulou, has taken a lover, the local gamekeeper Christos (Yannis Totsikas). Just as Costas crosses his own threshold he is attacked and strangled; the lovers bury him in the garden and claim he has gone back to Germany.[2](https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/RECONSTRUCTION/tte%3A%3A92175ef7166c3694fa812be4887d0e3f)\n\nA relative of the victim grows suspicious and alerts the police, and the perpetrators confess. The film then follows two parallel inquiries: the examining magistrate's reconstruction of the crime scene, attended by the [Gendarmerie](https://www.edgepedia.org/gendarmerie) and by journalists from Athens, and a television crew's social documentary about the crime and the village, a crew that includes Angelopoulos himself in an uncredited role.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396) • [2](https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/RECONSTRUCTION/tte%3A%3A92175ef7166c3694fa812be4887d0e3f) From the first sequence the audience knows who was killed, how, and by whom; the film closes as it began, cutting back to the husband's return to indicate an order that has been ruptured.[7](https://trigon-film.org/en/films/anaparastasi/)\n\n**An atypical crime film.** Although *Reconstruction* is often described as a crime film, it is atypical of the genre because the guilt of the murderers is revealed almost immediately. The two lines of inquiry instead seek to determine which of the guilty parties committed the actual killing, a device Angelopoulos used to explore the intersections of truth, myth, and history in modern Greece.[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/reconstruction) The European Film Gateway's archive description notes that the handling of the reconstruction leads to a reflection on such reenactments, especially by film, where their completeness is placed in doubt in relation to facts and causes.[2](https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/RECONSTRUCTION/tte%3A%3A92175ef7166c3694fa812be4887d0e3f) Time Out reads the film's three inconsistent versions of the events as an echo of Clytemnestra's killing of [Agamemnon](https://www.edgepedia.org/agamemnon), a meditation on fact and falsehood, myth and history, storytelling and cinema.[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/reconstruction)\n\n## Setting and style\n\nFilming took place in the Zagorochoria region of Ioannina.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396) The film was shot in stark black-and-white 35 mm by Giorgos Arvanitis, the cinematographer Angelopoulos worked with through the late 1990s.[9](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/reconstruction-2016-07)\n\nThe Harvard Film Archive describes the film as a true-crime tale influenced by the interrogation scenes in [Orson Welles](https://www.edgepedia.org/orson-welles)'s *Touch of Evil* and his version of Kafka's *The Trial*, combining film noir, neorealism, and alienation.[9](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/reconstruction-2016-07) The story is set away from the cities and beaches that drew European tourists in the 1960s, and village life is as central to the film's interests as the characters themselves.[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/reconstruction)\n\n## Place in Greek cinema\n\n*Reconstruction* signaled a decisive break in Greek cinema from its [Golden Age](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-age) of the 1950s and 1960s, the period of [Melina Mercouri](https://www.edgepedia.org/melina-mercouri) and *Zorba the Greek*.[9](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/reconstruction-2016-07) When it won an award at the 1970 Thessaloniki Film Festival, Greek commentators considered this a turning point in Greek cinema, and the film is marked as the first film of the New Greek Cinema movement, a politically engaged, auteur-driven current made under the military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.[10](https://urban.aphrodite.mywire.org/getting-to-know-greek-cinema-films-and-history/) • [11](https://notcoming.com/reviews/reconstruction_70/) The Thessaloniki festival's own retrospective says the film's prizes signaled the dawn of [Modern Greek](https://www.edgepedia.org/modern-greek) cinema.[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/reconstruction/)\n\nThe film also established themes Angelopoulos revisited throughout a career that culminated in the Golden Palm at Cannes in 1998 for *Eternity and a Day*; he died on 24 January 2012 in an accident during the shooting of *The Other Sea*.[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/reconstruction/) A traditional lament from Epirus, \"Little Short Lemon Tree,\" is used for the opening and ending, and the same song recurs in *Days of '36* (1972), *The Travelling Players* (1975), and *The Hunters* (1977), drawing a connection between the director's early films.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe film premiered on 24 September 1970 at the Thessaloniki Film Festival and later had limited theatrical reissues in Greece in 2010, for its fortieth anniversary, and in 2023 as part of a \"Theo Angelopoulos Year\" program.[3](https://letterboxd.com/film/reconstruction-1970/) Reported runtimes differ across sources: the Harvard Film Archive lists 97 minutes, several databases list 100 minutes, Filmin lists 101 minutes, the ICA lists 105 minutes, and IMDb and the [Thessaloniki](https://www.edgepedia.org/thessaloniki) festival list 110 minutes.[9](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/reconstruction-2016-07) • [7](https://trigon-film.org/en/films/anaparastasi/) • [12](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/reconstruccion) • [13](https://www.ica.art/films/angelopoulos-reconstruction) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396) • [4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/reconstruction/) At the Thessaloniki festival it won Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actress, and the Critics' Award, and in 1971 it received the Georges Sadoul Award as the best film of the year shown in France, the Best Foreign Film Award at the Hyères Film Festival, and a FIPRESCI Special Mention at the [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival).[4](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/reconstruction/) It was voted one of the best Greek films by the Panhellenic Union of Film Critics in 1986 and 2006, and it was screened in February 2020 in the Berlinale Forum's fifty-year celebration program.[14](https://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/film-of-the-month-reconstruction-the-first-film-of-the-last-modernist/)\n\n## Other films titled Reconstruction\n\nThe title has been used by several unrelated films. Lucian Pintilie's Romanian *Reconstituirea* (premiered 5 [January 1970](https://www.edgepedia.org/january-1970) in [Bucharest](https://www.edgepedia.org/bucharest)) forces two young men to reenact a drunken brawl for a state educational film about alcoholism; it was banned by the Romanian authorities shortly after its premiere, and Pintilie was pressured to leave the country.[15](https://www.cinemagia.ro/filme/reconstituirea-1216/) • [16](https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/reconstruction) Christoffer Boe's Danish *Reconstruction* (2003), about a photographer whose life dissolves after a one-night affair, won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes for best debut film.[17](https://www.filmfesthamburg.de/en/film-info/reconstruction/) Irene Lusztig's documentary *Reconstruction* (2001) investigates the 1959 Ioanid Gang bank heist in Communist Romania, in which the filmmaker's grandmother was implicated, using footage from a 1960 propaganda reenactment of the crime.[18](https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu/fellows-works/reconstruction/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Reconstruction (1970), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065396)\n2. [RECONSTRUCTION, European Film Gateway](https://www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/detail/RECONSTRUCTION/tte%3A%3A92175ef7166c3694fa812be4887d0e3f)\n3. [Reconstruction (1970), Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/film/reconstruction-1970/)\n4. [Reconstruction – Αναπαράσταση, Thessaloniki Film Festival](https://filmfestival.gr/en/tiff/films/reconstruction/)\n5. [Reconstruction, Google Play Movies](https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Reconstruction?id=FE6910BB9B4655D4MV)\n6. [Anaparastasi, Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst](https://www.arsenal-berlin.de/en/berlinale-forum/archive/program-archive/2020/forum-50-anniversary-program/anaparastasi-1/)\n7. [Anaparastasi, trigon-film](https://trigon-film.org/en/films/anaparastasi/)\n8. [Reconstruction 1970, directed by Theo Angelopoulos, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/reconstruction)\n9. [Reconstruction (Anaparastasi), Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/reconstruction-2016-07)\n10. [Getting to Know Greek Cinema, Films and History – Urban Aphrodite](https://urban.aphrodite.mywire.org/getting-to-know-greek-cinema-films-and-history/)\n11. [Reconstruction (1970), Not Coming to a Theater Near You](https://notcoming.com/reviews/reconstruction_70/)\n12. [Reconstrucción, Filmin](https://www.filmin.es/pelicula/reconstruccion)\n13. [ICA | Opening Night Reconstruction (2K Restoration)](https://www.ica.art/films/angelopoulos-reconstruction)\n14. [Film of the Month: \"Reconstruction\" the first film of the Last Modernist, Greek News Agenda](https://www.greeknewsagenda.gr/film-of-the-month-reconstruction-the-first-film-of-the-last-modernist/)\n15. [Reconstituirea (1971), CineMagia.ro](https://www.cinemagia.ro/filme/reconstituirea-1216/)\n16. [Reconstruction (Reconstituirea), Gene Siskel Film Center](https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/reconstruction)\n17. [Reconstruction, Filmfest Hamburg](https://www.filmfesthamburg.de/en/film-info/reconstruction/)\n18. [Reconstruction, The Film Study Center at Harvard University](https://filmstudycenter.fas.harvard.edu/fellows-works/reconstruction/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1970s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/reconstruction", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/reconstruction.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Reconstruction\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/reconstruction. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Reconstruction](https://www.edgepedia.org/reconstruction)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/reconstruction](https://www.edgepedia.org/reconstruction). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Reconstruction\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/reconstruction. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Reconstruction is Theo Angelopoulos's 1970 Greek black-and-white feature debut about a magistrate reconstructing a migrant worker's murder by his wife and lover, a landmark of New Greek Cinema." }