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Greek historical drama film, directed by Nikos Koundouros and based on the autobiographical book “Number 31328“ by Elias Venezis. The dramatic consequences of the Destruction of Smyrna and the Genocide of the Greeks and Armenians in Turkey are portrayed through the agonising ordeals of the Asia Minor Greeks, who had been arrested and led to meet their end by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's troops and armed-to-the-teeth groups of Muslims. The story revolves around three central characters: the wife of a merchant, a teacher, and a seventeen-year-old youth. (Nick Riganas) --------- Original Title: 1922 IMDb rate: 6,4/10 Cast: Antigoni Amanitou Zaharias Rohas Eleonora Stathopoulou Vasilis Kolovos Betty Valassi Vasos Andronidis Movie Trivia: 1. the film was banned from cinemas in Greece by the Greek Government of Konstantinos Karamanlis due to pressure by the Turkish Foreign Ministry who complained that the film would ruin Greek-Turkish relations. Despite the ban, Koundouros took a copy of the film and presented it to the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece where it received numerous awards. The Greek ban remained until 1982. In that year, under the government of Andreas Papandreou, the film was due to be screened at the Budapest Film Festival, but half an hour prior to its screening, it was cancelled by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry with the support of the Greek Ambassador. 2. 1922 is an adaptation of Elias Venezis's memoir titled 'The Number 31328: The Book of Slavery' which details the experience of Venezis, who at the age of 18, was arrested by the Kemalists, taken prisoner and enslaved in a labor battalion following the Smyrna Holocaust. The prisoners were marched into the interior, but few arrived at the destination since most of them were either killed on the way or died of their hardships. Of the 3,000 conscripted into his labor brigade only 23 survived. 3. The City of Smyrna was a multicultural and cosmopolitan center for centuries. According to the U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time, Henry Morgenthau, more than half of Smyrna's population was Greek. This is the reason the Turks called it “Gavour Izmir“, Izmir (Smyrna) the Infidel. Apart from Greeks, they were leaving in the city many Armenians, Jews and, of course, Turks. In fact, the historical presence of the Greeks in Anatolia, goes back to the 12th Century AD, at the times of the Byzantine Empire, while the Turks have been there only since the second half of the 15th Century AD. That explains Anatolia's huge greek population. Sadly, most of these people where eliminated or forced to leave the land by the nationalist Goverment of Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk“, the “father of all Turks“. 4. When the First World War ended, the region of Smyrna was given to the Greek State, according to the Treaty of Sèvres, under the condition that the Turks would be respected. Greeks and Armenians were celebrating for days the arrival of the Greek Army. Their cries of joy would be soon be replaced by cries of help, when the Turks occupied the city once again. The Alies (British, French and Italians) forced the Greek Army to move forward into turkish mainland. After the defeat and retreat of the Greek army in August 1922, the Turks recaptured the City on September 9, 1922. In the immediate aftermath, the Turks set fire to the the Greek and Armenian quarters of the city, on September 13, and spread quickly due to the windy weather and the fact that no effort was made to put it out. Terryfied, thousands of Greeks and Armenians overcrowded the port, where they were slaughtered by the turkish forces. Turkish soldiers also attacked western schools and the facilities of the Orthodox Archdiocese. Greek-Orthodox Metropolitan Chrysostom was tortured, murdered and the draged around the city, according to the old Ottoman “tradition“. Despite the fact that allied warships were anchored in the port, they did nothing to prevent the Catastrophe. The death toll is estimated to 100,000. 5. The Burning of Smyrna was the peak of the Greek Genocide (1918-1922) by the Turkish Goverment of Kemal Atatürk. Later, Adolf Hitler would mention Kemal as his inspiration for the orchistration of the Holocaust.
