"The original idea was about a group of performers travelling throughout the Greek provinces; a journey in Greece and its history. Later, other elements came to bind to this rough idea: the tying them into, for instance, the heroes of the Atreides myth. Intrigue was ready-made: father, son, daughters, loverΙ the powerΙ their childrenΙ murdersΙ These function both as a myth and as a real story. Therefore, I was departing from the construction of the story Π the film would be placed in a historical period (1939-1952) full of events and sentiments/ emotions Π since, at the outset, I had decided that I would not make it a history book, that I would not film on the grounds of making history. The myth of the Atreides family helped me regard the group as a prism and look at this historic period through it. [Ι] The myth in the film is not very heavy. There are no names. There is no Agamemnon, Elektra, Pylades etc; nor is there a Nick or a Paul. The only name mentioned is Orestes. To me, Orestes represents more an idea than an individual. It is the idea of the revolution towards which all heroes lean. Many of the filmΥs characters have an almost love affair with Orestes; a relationship indicating the love for the idea of revolution itself. Orestes is the only hero who remains scrupulous; the only one who consistently stands up for his ideals and sacrifices his life for them.

Theo Angelopoulos
Contemporary Cinema Τ74, issue no. 1, August-September 1974.

From 1939 to 1952, The Travelling Players travel through time performing Golfo, they live their personal stories based on the archetypal myth of Atreides and traverse History as complex individuals of a cultural discourse (Golfo) and of an oedipal relationship (Atreides). The group Π eye-witness and subject of History at the same time Π cuts the narrativeΥs sequence and replaces it with an "epic" Πin the Brechtian sense Π a narrative, constructed on the known myth of Atreides. The family of Orestes, through the classical form of tragedy, reconstructs the historic framework of its times. The omnipresent "Golfo" Π another (almost) cultural archetype Π comments on the two successive stories: the AtreidesΥ story and History.
Agamemnon, betrayed to the Germans by Aegisthus, is executed; Aegisthus, ClytemnestraΥs lover, is a supporter of the dictatorship and a informer for the Germans; Clytemnestra is AegisthusΥ lover; Orestes, matricide and murderer, a partisan of the mountains, who avenges, both on the level of tragedy and the political level, his fatherΥs death. Electra, OrestesΥ sister, is a left-winger, who helps Orestes kill the adulterers. Pylades is OrestesΥ friend and a communist. Chrisothemis (a character borrowed from Sophocles) is the Poet and young Orestes are the only characters who are not direct descendants of the Atreides family. Without overthrowing or undermining the tragic story, they help the narrative along by lending their images to historically fixed roles. Chrisothemis is a person who yields in order to survive; a person who accepts and profits from foreign aid (English and American). The Poet is a visionary and not very realistic about the revolution, a tragic commentator of the LeftΥs defeat. Young Orestes, instructed by Electra (by 1952 she becomes the leader of the troupe) enters the troupe of performers and History. He continues the performances Golfo (a symbol of national independence) in spite of imported fox trots and Marshall Plans.

From the catalogue Twenty-five Years of Greek Cinema, Athens 1985