Eleftherios Venizelos

This lengthy non-didactic chronicle covers the years 1909-22; from the arrival in Athens of the progressive, if expansionist Cretan politician Venizelos (Christidis, authoritative), his premiership through the Balkan Wars (1910-12), his conflict with the German-leaning King, to the loss of the 1920 election. He was to be recalled in 1928 and led Greece till his death which was followed by the Metaxas military takeover. It's an episodic story, expensively mounted and finely shot, and intercut with contemporary political revues which summarise, Brecht-style, the unfolding events. Voulgaris lays winning emphasis on the human dimension, even as Venizelos remains an enigmatic, if sympathetic figure, but there's probably a surfeit of unexplained historical detail for non-Greek specialists.