Blood on the Land

Vassilis Georgiades directed this tense drama, one of the final Greek films made before the 1967 coup which led to restrictions on film content. The plot concerns struggles between peasants and the wealthy estate-owners over division of land in the early part of the 20th century. This battle is contrasted with the rivalry of two brothers over a woman’s affections. The performances are somewhat lacking, but Georgiades’ assured direction and presentation of a little-known chapter of Greek history resulted in an Oscar nomination as “Best Foreign Film.”