The Suspended Step of the Stork
The Suspended Step of the Stork is a 1991 Greek film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. It was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.
Cast
Plot
A journalist is in a town on the border of Greece where refugees await approval of their papers. He notices an old man whom he suspects is a famous politician who, years ago, disappeared without a trace. He works to uncover the man's story, meeting one of his old lovers in the process.
Themes
The film explores the concept of borders, specifically in relation to the history of the Balkans. In The films of Theo Angelopoulos: A Cinema of Contemplation, Andrew Horton writes that the images in Suspended Step "force us to meditate, in a clearer light, on the concept of borders and the territories-geographical, cultural, political, and personal-they lock in and out." He likens the structure of the film to that of Citizen Kane, noting that in Angelopoulos' film the reporter is a more individualized character. In Suspended Step, the journalist does not discover his "Rosebud", but rather gains an appreciation of the possibility of a new humanism in the process of border crossing. The final shot of the reporter watching phone lines being built embodies this idea, "offering the healing touch of movement beyond boundaries."
Reception
New York Times critic Caryn James noted that although The Suspended Step of the Stork has "all the elements of a first-rate Angelopoulos film", it suffers from a "bland, banal" protagonist that "dissolves suspense wherever he turns." Though she offers praise for Mastroianni's performance, James refers to the film as "uneven" and "strained".