Wedding guests gossip quietly among themselves throughout the ceremony, guns are used in place of rice, and it is customary for the bride to step on the groom's foot during the service in order to gain the upper hand in the marriage. Known for its symbolism and deep-rooted Orthodox tradition, one thing a Greek wedding is not - is small in scale, boring and lacking in extravagance.
Their eyebrows are black and thick and their facial expressions austere and proud. The women from the small village of Olympos, high in the north of the Greek island of Karpathos, are different from the women on the rest of the island. This part of Karpathos has the harshest landscape on the 300 square kilometre island thanks to its craggy coastline and the waves that crash upon the shore. But its olive groves and hidden bays also make it the most beautiful place on Karpathos. Olympos is difficult to reach.
The film's story begins in 1566 in his birth land, the island of Crete, under Venetian rule on those times. Domenico's father is a rebel fighting against his country's conquerors, while Domenico is already a known painter, enjoying the fame and success of his art. In his life and work the artist amalgamates the Cretan pride with the Venetian culture, acknowledging at the same time the attraction exerted to him by Venice, a city representing the epicenter of his artistic world.
