SEVEN BLACK YEARS
"A film from the archives, made in 1974 and an engrossing history of the Colonels' coup in Greece in 1967 - and what life was then like for the Greek people under the military dictatorship that held power for seven years.
As you watch it you realise, given what the Greeks have been through, it is no wonder that politicians, especially Papandreou, think the mandate of the people is important.The present language of the finance technocrats, and their supporters in the media, portray the Greek people as just another group of lazy southern Europeans who have fed too long at the trough of state money. A bit like us - but more crap.What is forgotten is that from 1967 to 1974 the Greek people lived under a harsh and violent dictatorship that tortured and murdered thousands of ordinary people. The Colonels also corrupted the society by handing out vast loans to individuals in towns and villages across the country - to buy their loyalty. At the same time the repression and torture bred a powerful resistance that finally burst out in incredible bravery in 1973."
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No-one ought to be ignorant of these things about beloved Greece. Yes 'we' are still scarred by two world wars; not a village in the kingdom without its memorial of matching names, but the living memory of civil war is further from us, so that we re-enact the ghastly nine years between 1642-51 as a happy beer fest picnic on bank holiday weekends courtesy of 'Sealed Knot'. Imagine an 'Ελληνικός Εμφύλιος Πόλεμος 1946-1949' pageant with day trips to Lazaretto and Vido to entertain tourists with local folk dressed as andartes and monarchists re-enacting the red and white terrors with mock executions, burned villages, rape and torture. Sometimes time does cure but not yet, not for Greece...
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