Pascali's Island (1988)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

James Dearden

Writers:

James Dearden (screenplay)
Barry Unsworth (novel)

Release Date:

August 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

1908: Pascali, a spy for the Sultan, sends reports to Istanbul that nobody reads. His suspicions are roused when a British archeologist appears...

Plot Keywords:

Archeologist | Spy | Island | Englishman | 1900s

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Ben Kingsley	...	Basil Pascali
Charles Dance	...	Anthony Bowles
Kevork Malikyan	...	Mardosian
George Murcell	...	Herr Gesing
Helen Mirren	...	Lydia Neuman
Nadim Sawalha	...	Pasha
Stefan Gryff	...	Izzet Effendi
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Pariente
Sheila Allen	...	Mrs. Marchant
T.P. McKenna	...	Dr. Hogan
Danielle Allen	...	Mrs. Hogan
Nick Burnell	...	Chaudan
Giorgos Oikonomou	...	Greek Rebel
Alistair Campbell	...	Captain
Ali Abatsis	...	Boy in Bath

Runtime:

104 min | Germany:103 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Certification:

Australia:M | UK:15 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG-13 | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Rhodes, Greece

Company:

Channel Four Films

Soundtrack:

Pritouritze Plamimata

Twilight Of A World

As schoolchildren we hear the terms World War "I" and "II" -- and then spend the rest of our lives learning why it was called WORLD war. The story is set in the Aegean on the eve of World War I when so many nations lusted to flash their sabers and sound their canons. Ben Kingsley brilliantly plays "Pascali," a bottom-ranking spy for the Ottoman Empire that, after reigning for 900 years, is about to be annihilated by the war. The name "Pascali" is a reference to Judeo-Christian symbols of the paschal lamb, passover, and so forth, and the story incorporates the encounter between Muslim Turkey and the Greek Orthodox Church. Pascali longs for the attention of expatriate Lydia (Helen Mirren) who, being an Austrian, represents the impending war's crushing of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as well. Into the lazy sun drenched intrigue of Pacali's Greek island steps one Antony Bowles (a most poished Charles Dance). A failed archeologist turned world-traveling swindler-sophisticate, Bowles, in classic Anglic fashion, plays the Turks and Germans against one another. (The only thing missing, in terms of dynasties the "Great War" destroyed, is a reference to the Romanovs! But then, actress Helen Mirren is of Russian descent...hmmm.) Even the Americans are involved as distantly glimpsed (for they would not enter the war until 1917) arms merchants. Lest this all seem like a pretentious amount of historical intricacy, "Pacali's Island" is a modest set piece about a handful of people whose gods have deserted them or never heard their plaintive worshipping in the first place. The blinding glare of the Greek Islands is artistically wrapped like bleached gauze around a mood of sweat-and-ouzo-soaked melancholy. Mature, intelligent, and sensitive, this one requires the viewer to be wide awake. View it perhaps on a Sunday morning while the coffee is fresh. Take from it the line (that means nothing out of the movie's context)"The error of their ways." Quality film making!