The Voyage (Το ταξίδι)

Music by Manos Hatzidakis
(prelude song: Star of the North (Αστέρι του Βοριά) from same album)
from the 1963 movie: America America (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056825/)
by Elias Kazan
Video by Aris
No copyrights reserved. Copyrights belong to respective owners.
A bit about the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_...

IN 2001, AMERICA AMERICA WAS SELECTED FOR PRESERVATION IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS AS BEING "CULTURALLY, HISTORICALLY, OR AESTHETICALLY SIGNIFICANT."


AMERICA AMERICA (1963) was directed, produced by Elia Kazan and based on his book with the same title. In his film, Kazan tells the story of his uncle, Avraam-Elia Kazancioglu, who grew up in the small village town in Cesarea, Asia Minor (today known as Kayseri, Turkey) at the end of the 19th Century.

Elia Kazan was born in the same village as his paternal uncle. He was born in 1909 to an Anatolian Greek family living under harsh Turkish rule during the Ottoman Empire. He was four, in 1913, when his parents immigrated to New York City. His father, George Kazancioglu was a rug merchant by trade and was able to continue his trade in America.

AMERICA AMERICA tells of Elias Kazan's father's brother who fled to Constantinople (renamed Istanbul in 1930) to get away from the brutality of the Turks against the Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian natives. Before fleeing to Constantinople, his uncle's father provided his son with the family treasures and a plan to earn enough money so that his family could later join him in Constantinople.

The time was around the early 1890's. Although the Greeks were oppressed by the Turks for centuries, their hearts belonged to Asia Minor-the land of their ancestors. But Kazan's uncle, the protagonist in AMERICA AMERICA, stretches his hopes beyond Constantinople. He wants to gather enough money for passage to America.

After many trials and tribulations, Avraam-Elia did reach New York City where he found work as a shoeshine boy. Eventually from his savings, A. E. Kazan his newly adopted name, managed to bring his family to the land where they, and Elia Kazan, had the chance to escape to.