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    White Tower (Thessaloniki, Greece)

    The White Tower was built in the fifteenth century after the fall of Thessaloniki to the Ottomans in 1430. At its location there had been an older tower belonging to Thessaloniki’s Byzantine fortifications, where the eastern wall met the sea wall. Over the years, it was referred to by various names and it was in 1883 that the tower was painted white and given the name “White Tower”.
    In time it became the symbol of Thessaloniki, since from 1911 it stood by itself on the seacoast following the demolition of the sea and eastern walls and its surrounding wall.

    photo of white tower by the sea
    The White Tower in Thessaloniki (picture by Annatsach)

    Thessaloniki was the filming location of LANDSCAPE IN THE MIST by Theo Angelopoulos, a master stylist, a world-acclaimed film auteur and Greece’s most prominent director of the post-1968 era.

    LANDSCAPE IN THE MIST won numerous awards including the Silver Lion at the 1988 Venice Film Festival and the European Film Award for Best Film 1989.

    It could be subtitled a “documentary fairy tale,” for the focus is on children, and the stark realism of the locations and landscapes documents the reality of their journey.

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