Abstract

The chapter engages with the idea of the actor as agent and critical presence in the film (Landscape in the Mist, Angelopoulos, 1988). This case pertains to Voula, a girl of about 11 years old who undertakes a significant and symbolic journey across Greece, travelling with her young brother, Alexandre. The film is a coming-of -age film, but also a film about migration and childhood, showing the harshness meted out to children who travel alone. However, at the heart of the film the character of Voula, in the performance of Tania Palaiologou, contradicts the profoundly dangerous assertion of both film-maker and critics that rape is an experience that propels maturation. Rather, it is an assault which pushes the victim away from a secure adulthood and towards sacrifice.