SOFIA'S PEOPLE-EVENTFUL LIVES

This outstanding production does an excellent job of conveying the emotional toll of warfare on noncombatants through an examination of one family's circumstances. It is also a nice portrayal of the interpersonal dynamics in an extended family whose members jointly own and operate a demanding business. P. Allen

37 minutes Colour 1985
Film-maker: Peter Loizos

Sofia and her family lost their village home in 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus. This film, mainly set in Nicosia in 1983, concerns the pressures of refugee economic recovery through shift work in a family bakery, and the pains of dislocation felt by Sofia expressed in her laments which she sings at intervals during the film.

The film is powerful because the members of this large refugee family become individuals for the viewer, each with his or her dissatisfactions, illusions, and dreams. The film manages to go beyond merely viewing the hardships these people are trying to overcome to a thought-provoking glimpse into the dynamics of a family. The film is recommended for both secondary school and university courses that are concerned with refugees, Mediterranean anthropology, politics, gender, or psychology. An earlier film by P. Loizos and G. Harris, Life Chances: Four Families in a Changing Cypriot Village, is available from the Library and for sale. Please refer to the listing in the films for sale handlist in this catalogue, and to the entry in the 1982 RAI Film Library Catalogue. Catalogue number (VHS): 4RA/VHS149 £8.

P. Allen, 1988. Review of the film. American Anthropologist Vol. 90, p. 782.

K. Kyle, 1984. Cyprus Minority Rights Group Report No. 30 (second edition revised) [Gives overview of how Cyprus came to be invaded by Turkey in 1974 and partioned de facto].

P. Loizos, 1975. The Greek Gift: Politics in a Cypriot Village. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.

P. Loizos, 1977. `A Struggle for Meaning: Reactions to Disaster among Cypriot Refugees'. Disasters, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 231-39.

P. Loizos, 1981. The Heart Grown Bitter: A Chronicle of Cypriot War Refugees. Cambridge University Press.