A former combattant of the Indochina war ,it was only natural that Claude-Bernard Aubert began his career with "la patrouille sans espoir" (=hopeless patrol) which for commercial reasons was renamed "la patrouille de choc" (=shock patrol) ; then two movies about racial conflicts, "les tripes au soleil" and "les lâches vivent d'espoir" " (=cowards live on hope) depicting a love affair between a black student and a white girl at a time (1961) when people were not that much tolerant , even in France .
"Cowards live on hope" might be the subtitle of "poliarka " based on a true story ;the nationalities are vague,as the cast and credits read;but the occupied island is certainly Greek and the invaders might be the Ottoman Turks ,although those names are never uttered .
A soldier was shot and the inhabitants of a small village must give the culprit away to their occupants : if they do not accept ,they won't be able to cross a bridge which becomes symbolic :this bridge is the only way to get food , the only link to the outside world. If one of them tries to get to the other side, he will be pitilessly shot .
Before war came to their door, the inhabitants were celebrating a child's birth and it was joy all around ,the depiction of the village is close to Italian neo realism ,and the people seem to be a very close community .
Overnight ,the coming of the occupants change everything :now they become suspicious , ready to hand a "culprit" to their enemy , refusing to share their food and black market looms in the village ;hence the alternate title "les moutons de Praxos " : sheep are par excellence the "men who were born to follow "as well as the sacrificial beasts.
The first part of the movie applies to the the first sense : and even when some scapegoats are handed over to the enemy, they ask for more ,and it's an escaladation of violence ,as the village is given over to pillage, rape and violence (the scene with the baby is particularly unbearable, perhaps sweetened on the insistence of the producers ).
Do they have to be slaughtered like lambs or shall they join the resistant fighters struggling in the mountains ?Some younger people want to strike back ,but they are captured and humiliated by the occupants ("you wage war with kids!")
They opt for a third solution:the schoolteacher suggests that every day one of the men go to the bridge and get shot down ; we're going to let the dead bodies rot there ; now the sheep become martyrs .The human side is not passed over in silence: one of the victims breaks his alarm clock because he's afraid of death but a lugubrious bell calls him ruthlessly. Will the enemy eventually take pity on them?
The director does not really take sides ,it's no sure ,considering his former works, that he approves of this behavior .
A French -Greek co-production ,with an entirely Greek cast dubbed in French when it was released (and dismally commercially flopped )in France .It's nevertheless an interesting work : the panoramics on the fateful bridge which ceasessly come back are really impressive.
