"THE OTHER SEA" A NEW FILM BY THEO ANGELOPOULOS
The film is in production starring Toni Servillo.


Synopsis
The days before New Year’s in the great port of the country that is suffocating as a result of the financial crisis. On the roof of a factory occupied by striking workers, a nude striker throws his clothes down to the crowd that has gathered below to protest the layoffs. E., daughter of P., the city’s Deputy Mayor has joined a company of actors that is trying, with the participation of the strikers from the factories, to put on Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, reacting with this timely play to the suffocating situation that surrounds them. Her father owns a big auto repair shop in the city and at the same time runs an illegal operation trafficking immigrants from Greece to Italy hidden among the cargo in trucks. The nude striker finally jumps into the void. His funeral at night triggers a series of episodes. A huge protest rally during which as the result of the heavy rain the casket with the deceased is taken to the immigrants’ shantytown for shelter and then the flight of all to the ruins of a nearby factory where E. is sexually attracted to a young immigrant, Selab, who is also one of the actors in the play. The next day the police throw out the strikers and empty the factory.
P. who bears the scars of his young wife abandoning him years ago when E. was a little girl, invites his daughter to a fashionable night club on New Year’s Eve so that they can both celebrate her birthday and drunkenly lets himself go in a solitary dance. On New Year’s Day, the opening night of the Opera the company of actors with E. have been rehearsing all this time does not take place. The police bars entry to the theater for fear of rioting by the crowd that has gathered in the square and throws out of a back door all those who managed to get in. Late at night the actors exit the theater and disperse.
P. has become aware from the little love poems he finds in his daughter’s room of her relationship with Selab and after finding out from the Afghani who works in his gas station that his daughter’s young lover is leaving the next day in one of the trucks along with his friend Ali, fears that he is losing his daughter. That same night he arranges with one of his trusted truck drivers the murder of the young Iranian. Meanwhile the bulldozers level the immigrants’ settlement, an event that triggers massive rioting in the city which is divided into two camps. Terrified, the immigrants hide here and there in the dark corner of the city they call the Triangle of Death. E. discovers Selab hiding and their relationship is passionately consummated just as the Afghani who works in the gas station warns Ali that Selab is in danger. On her return home and from messages on her father’s voice mail, E. senses that Selab is in danger and rushes to the port just as the ship bound for Italy is getting ready to sail.
The trucks with the young immigrants hiding inside them have passed the gate. E. can do nothing. Ali is mistakenly killed when he switches places with Selab who now sails away. E. reacts violently and is arrested. Late at night P.’s lawyer secures her release and she returns home. Now she knows it is her father who gave the order. When, later on, P. goes up to talk to her, aware that she knows, she is no longer at home. P. takes to the streets in search of her. He ends up at the departure pier in the port and waits inside his car. E. roams the city with her backpack slung over her shoulder. She goes to the spot where the company of actors has arranged to meet. They take their leave of her with the finale of the Threepenny Opera. Then, alone, she sets out for the port after telling her old friend, the director of the play, that she doesn’t know where she’s going. Perhaps to the other sea...
In front of the gate through which the trucks bound for Italy enter, she sees her father. It is raining. Her father gets out of his car. He knows it’s all over. Crying, E. boards the ship which starts moving away from the dock. A shot is heard. P.’s gun on the pavement and his face covered with blood. E.’s ship heads towards the open sea. The day breaks.