(Panoramic) The river: A natural boundary with the two banks. Narrator: "This is the river. It would be a river like any other in the world: a little longer or a little smaller, if it didn't happen to be something more than that: a river boundary. We are this side of the river; they are on the other side. And so, we only knew one bank. And everything would look nice and quiet from here, if it wasn't for those shadows. It's the secret life creeping about the reeds and the marshland of the forbidden zone. But, it all looks quiet here. Occasionally, somebody takes a shot at a sign, a brief distraction in the long uneventful silence that builds to an almost unbearable climax. A sign pricked by bullets: "BEWARE, BORDERLANDS. DANGEROUS ZONE". A gunshot. A bullet chops off the edge of the sign.

The two children take refuge in a shack. The boy: "Get up … I'm leaving". The girl: "That's childish behaviour". The boy stages a scene and gesticulates wildly to frighten her or demonstrate how brave he is. He whistles and a dog appears. The boy fights with the dog, like Hercules and the lion. The dog goes off with the tail between its legs. The boy produces his recorder and plays a tune, while the girl opens her suitcase and changes. The boy tells her that he will go to her father to claim the five hundred drachmas. The girl replies that the conscripts will take it all away from him, which starts the boy thinking. The girl poses seductively and teases him with the whole passion of childish eroticism. The boy calls her "frivolous". She hands him her piggy bank, asking for a kiss in return. Feeling rather awkward, the boy keeps his distance. She asks him to go away together. The boy: "And who will keep the buffaloes?" The girl: "Which do you prefer, the buffaloes or me?" The boy finds it hard to decide. The girl bursts into tears. While she is fumbling for her clothes, the boy confesses that he doesn't care about the five hundred drachmas. She says: "Go get them. I'll be here waiting for you". The boy gives her a tender kiss. B) The posse with the conscripts and the horsemen go off, taking the girl with them. The little shepherd follows them on foot.

Participants: THE TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL – THE TEN-YEAR-OLD BOY - CONSCRIPTS

The couple pursued by a posse of armed horsemen take refuge in an army depot. They look weary and despondent. The young man tells Anna that her father called him a gipsy; he would never give his daughter to a gipsy. Anna tells him to keep his voice down because they might hear them. The posse searches the area. They decide to get out of there. They leave the army depot and their hideout. They move on without taking any special precautions. It looks as if they have resigned themselves to their fate.

Participants: ANNA – ANNA'S BOYFRIEND

"The old man", carrying the cross and the shotgun, wades through the marshland, taking all precautions. Markos, one of the two brothers, is looking for him. "The old man" places the cross in a thicket of cane, taking care not to get the gunpowder wet. Wading through the marshland, Markos comes upon the cross. "The old man" gets out of his hideout and points the shotgun at him from behind. He says he doesn't want to share with two more people the two thousand pounds – at least – the stolen cross is worth. He wants it all to himself. Just then, Markos is being sucked into a whirlpool of mud, clinging to the cross. His anguished cries echo throughout the marshland.

Participants: "THE OLD MAN" – TASOS - MARKOS

Manolis Kazoukidis, in defiance of the second lieutenant's order to stay within a 50-metre radius, approaches the river bank. He notices a scarecrow dressed in a German uniform and begins shouting at it with derision in a Dionysian frenzy. He moves on and plunges into the river. Suddenly, he spots a soldier from the enemy camp. He takes aim but doesn't pull the trigger. He can find no reason why to shoot him. Laughing his heart out, he turns his back to "the enemy on the other side". There is a gunshot and the expression of happiness on his faces gives way to acute pain. He drops dead.

Participants: MANOLIS

The posse with the horsemen look for the couple. The two young people move along without taking precautions any more. The man calls out: "Come and get us". Ignoring the warning sign about the minefield, he finds himself in it. Turning to Anna, standing at the edge of the mine field, he calls out: "I've killed you a thousand times over today, Anna". He is on hostile terrain. He courts death with every step he takes. Anna trembles with fear. He asks her to turn round and go back. She has nowhere to go. As if he doesn't care whether he lives or dies, the young man keeps walking across the minefield, taking no precautions. The horsemen realize what is happening, and give the couple a wide berth, leaving them alone. Only Anna's father goes round in a circle on his horse, watching silently the two lovers taking their life in their own hands.

Participants: ANNA – ANNA'S LOVER – CONSCRIPTS ON HORSEBACK – ANNA'S FATHER

OPENING TITLES

It is daytime. An army jeep is negotiating a rough terrain near the river bank. A second lieutenant with a sergeant walks away from the soldiers to pinpoint the exact location for planting the mines. In defiance to the enemy watching every move they make, they are not going to wait to get dark; the planting of the mines will be carried out in broad daylight. A portly middle-aged man with a moustache and a shaved head (Titos Vandis) wades across the marshland. He is "the old man" chased by two men: Markos (Takis Emmanuil) and his brother Tasos. It becomes increasingly difficult to press on with the pursuit. Tasos says that "the old man" knows every inch of the marshland. To make sure he doesn't get away, they decide to draw up a plan. The outlook is bleak. "The marshland is full of whirlpools". The second lieutenant glances at his compass; accompanied by the sergeant, he walks back to the soldiers: 400 mines will have to be planted in broad daylight. The enemy must not suspect anything. To this effect, some soldiers will create a diversion and pretend to be hanging around killing time, while some other will plant the mines. At the marshland, "the old man", looking weary, and moving with difficulty, breaks off a reed to use as a breathing apparatus when he goes underwater. The two brothers split up and press on with the pursuit. Markos finds traces of snapped reeds, which is evidence that "the old man" has been there. Further down, Tasos is being sucked into a whirlpool and cries out for his brother in anguish. Tasos' cries for help reverberate across the entire marshland and are picked up by a runaway couple: Anna, a beautiful young girl and her boyfriend fleeing her relatives, who are hot on their heels. "It's hopeless. They'll catch up with us any minute now", says the man, while Anna cries in utter desperation. Their only chance is to cross the river.

Participants: SECOND LIEUTENANT – THE SERGEANT – MARKOS – TASOS – "THE OLD MAN" – ANNA – ANNA'S BOYFRIEND

At the marshland, Markos gets to Tasos just before he is sucked up by the whirlpool. He struggles to pull him out onto solid ground. As the two brothers go off, a sudden small noise in the quiet of the marshland betrays "the old man", who has come out of the water. As if resigned himself to his fate, "the old man" gives himself up to his pursuers. A group of armed horsemen with hound dogs approach the river; they are Anna's relatives. "Hang on, father! They aren't going to get away …, they've been through here", says one of the girl's brothers to the posse leader. Hiding away in a ditch running along some barbed wire, the couple watch their pursuers go away. They plan to wait there until it gets dark and make their getaway in the night. Further away, in the distance, there is an army depot.

Participants: MARKOS – TASOS – "THE OLD MAN" – ANNA – ANNA'S BOYFRIEND – ANNA'S RELATIVES – ANNA'S FATHER

A ten-year-old buffalo herdsman runs into a girl his age, carrying a suitcase. The smartly dressed girl, most likely born to a middle-class family, makes fun of the little boy wearing a huge coat. That annoys the boy and brings his sharp rejoinder. He knows the truth about her: she is the colonel's daughter who has run away from home; there is a five-hundred-drachma reward for information about her whereabouts. "You, traitor! You'll turn me in for peanuts", she retorts sharply. A jeep with soldiers pulls up at the bridge above. They ask the little shepherd if he has seen the girl, who has just ducked down behind the herd of buffalo, and he says he hasn't. Up at the bridge, the couple's mounted pursuers cross path with the soldiers looking for the colonel's daughter.

Participants: THE TEN-YEAR-OLD SHEPHERD – THE TEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL - SOLDIERS

A) The conscripts work themselves up to a pitch of frenzy, dancing and singing wildly. Among them is a conscript whose military service ends in nine days. It is Manolis Kazoukidis's (Anestis Vlachos) final countdown in the army, and he feels like cracking and playing jokes. B) In the meantime, the second lieutenant, accompanied by some soldiers working feverishly, pushes the task of planting mines to completion.

Participants: CONSCRIPTS – MANOLIS – SECOND LIEUTENANT - SOLDIERS

The two brothers and "the old man" are now clear of the marshland and come to the river bank, where two sisters perform a sensual oriental dance (something like a belly dance) on the sand, to the sound of music from a gramophone. The men reassure the two women and are told that the girls' father is coming over with a boat in the evening; they need the boat to get across the river. The brunette (Dina Trianti) helps "the old man" to wash, while the blonde apparently tries to seduce Markos. One of the girls suspects them of having stolen a valuable cross and is about to turn them in when the men capture her. They tie her to a stake, and consider various escape scenarios. It looks as if one tries to cheat the other; they don't trust each other. The two women talk about the brothers, when "the old man" makes believe that he will let them keep the cross on the pretext that he is tired and he is going back. He goes off taking the gun with him. When Tasos glances at the hand-woven bag, he realizes that "the old man" has slipped through their fingers once again. They go after him in the direction of the marshland.

Participants: THE SISTERS – TASOS – MARKOS – "THE OLD MAN"

The conscripts – still all worked up – play a tug-of-war. One of them, exhausted after the frenzied game in the heat of the day, declares that "if anyone should see us from the other side, they would think we are raving mad". Manolis Kazoukidis begins to play a song on his baglama. The other conscripts spread around him and lie prone on the ground to listen to the song. They glance at each other in bewilderment. In the meantime, the second lieutenant and the soldiers are completing the planting of mines, when they stand still and strain their ears to the distant sound of Manolis' baglama.

Participants: CONSCRIPTS – MANOLIS – THE SECOND LIEUTENANT

Anna and her boyfriend lie down in each other's arms, comment admiringly on one another's physical attractions, for the first time as it were, and make love.

Participants: ANNA – ANNA'S BOYFRIEND