Andros Odyssey: Liberation

The daughter of a rich Greek family in Constantinople escapes from her dysfunctionalfamily by getting romantically involved with a handsome visitingpeasant. This union produced a little boy, Anthony Boyun-egri-oglou.

Anthony grew up during troubling times. He saw very little of his father, wholeft for Constantinople and then Russia, to escape from being drafted in theTurkish army. He grew up in the shadows of the Ottoman Empire as it wasgoing through major revolutions and wars. The First World War (1914-1918)followed, causing shortages and anguish on Cappadocian Greeks and Turksalike. After this war, the disastrous Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) began. Inthe ensuing truce, Greece and Turkey agreed to an exchange of populations.

The uprooting (1924) of the Boyun-egri-oglou family involved an arduous trip,involving cart, rail and ship transports. These people left almost twelve hundredyears of history behind, to seek freedom and self determination in a troubledstate, overburdened with refugees. The struggle of the refugees is recounted byAnthony very graphically.

In 1940, after several recoveries and disasters, Greece enters into war with Italy,turning Anthonys hopes for recovery into an impossible dream.