The Suspended Step of the Stork

The Suspended Step of the Stork (Το Mετέωρο Bήμα Tου Πελαργού, translit. To Meteoro Vima Tou Pelargou) is a 1991 Greek film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. It was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.

Cast

 * Marcello Mastroianni as Missing Politician
 * Jeanne Moreau as The Woman
 * Gregory Patrikareas as Alexandre the Reporter (as Gregory Karr)
 * Ilias Logothetis as Colonel
 * Dora Hrisikou as The Girl
 * Vassilis Bouyiouklakis as Production Manager
 * Dimitris Poulikakos as Chief Photographer
 * Gerasimos Skiadaressis as Waiter
 * Tasos Apostolou as Perchman
 * Akis Sakellariou as Sound Operator
 * Athinodoros Prousalis as Hotel-keeper
 * Mihalis Giannatos as Shopkeeper
 * Christoforos Nezer as Parliament's President
 * Yilmaz Hassan as Hanged Man
 * Benjamin Ritter as Sound Operator

Plot
A journalist (Gregory Patrick Karr) is in a town on the border of Greece where refugees await approval of their papers. He notices an old man (Marcello Mastroianni) whom he suspects is a famous politician who, years ago, disappeared without a trace. He works to uncover the man's story, meeting one of his old lovers (Jeanne Morreau) in the process.

Themes
The film explores the concept of borders, specifically in relation to the history of the Balkans. In The films of Theo Angelopoulos: A Cinema of Contemplation, Andrew Horton writes that the images in Suspended Step "force us to meditate, in a clearer light, on the concept of borders and the territories-geographical, cultural, political, and personal-they lock in and out." He likens the structure of the film to that of Citizen Kane, noting that in Angelopoulos' film the reporter is a more individualized character. In Suspended Step, the journalist does not discover his "Rosebud", but rather gains an appreciation of the possibility of a new humanism in the process of border crossing. The final shot of the reporter watching phone lines being built embodies this idea, "offering the healing touch of movement beyond boundaries."

Reception
New York Times critic Caryn James noted that although The Suspended Step of the Stork has "all the elements of a first-rate Angelopoulos film", it suffers from a "bland, banal" protagonist that "dissolves suspense wherever he turns." Though they offer praise for Mastroianni's performance, James refers to the film as "uneven" and "strained".