Attila '74

Cacoyannis' documentary 'testimony' is a passionate massing of evidence and accusation concerning the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 that finally raises more questions than it answers, particularly about the mechanics and motivations of international power politics. The film's presiding spirit is Archbishop Makarios, shown wandering impishly at one point among the ruins of his palace while a voice on post-coup radio declares him dead, and much of the film is made up of an extended interview with him. An Eoka B man quotes Alexander the Great on the Gordian Knot. Puppet President Nicos Sampson, in many ways the affair's most intriguing stooge, speaks volubly but unintelligibly. And there's a vast chorus of dispossessed Greeks, mostly women, voicing personal distress, confusion and hysteria - especially the latter, for Cacoyannis is at all points longer on emotion than political analysis, which does his issue a disservice.