Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
OhOn top of a hill in the center of Corfu, a classically carved marble barrier looks up to the sky, thin, elegant and infinitely crafted. No uniform, decorations, or insignia of rank, name cut below in large Greek letters: Ι Α ΚΑΠΟΔΙΣΤΡΙΑΣ. The explosion stands alone in the gardens of Koukouritsa, which was once the family home of Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first governor of Greece. The building is now the only museum in the country dedicated to a person who left their most powerful diplomatic post. Europe returning to a world that was not a world and trying to build another.
Without Kapodistrias, there might not have been a modern Greek state, and the map of Europe would look very different today. He spent many years providing material and moral support to the Greek invaders; once freedom won the Ottoman Empire, he negotiated directly with Britain, France and Russia on the borders of the new country and the future, then he began to build institutions, his money, courts, schools and public services that the country is still on today. Jean-Gabriel Eynard of Switzerland wrote: “He who killed Kapodistrias killed his country,” he wrote after hearing about the assassination of the governor in 1831 by the leaders of the rebels who joined the leaders of the rebels, who were enemies.
Yet 250 years after his birth, Kapodistrias remains one of the most famous post-Napoleonic European politicians abroad. Greeceand often within it. Even the impressive museum that commemorates him is struggling “to meet the demands of his work,” as his director recently told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini. A new film about his life, opening in UK cinemas this week after a successful run in Greece and showings across Europe, is trying to change that.
Born in Corfu in 1776, when the island was still owned by Venice, Kapodistrias entered the Russian service of the 20th century and, within six years, rose to become foreign minister of the Russian Empire under Emperor Alexander I. At the Russian court, he moved to a glittering culture. Roderick Beaton, author of Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, said: “He was a brilliant politician. “The foreign politicians and diplomats of the time, especially the Congress of Vienna, were very fond of him.”
The film, Kapodistrias, written and directed by Yannis Smaragdis, makes sure to show that even though its protagonist was created by Russia, he did not listen to him. In one scene, Kapodistrias encourages the king to go to war with the Ottomans, calculating that the Russian front will draw the Ottoman forces out of Greece.
After being promoted to foreign minister, Kapodistrias warned the emperor that if he had to choose between Russia and Greece, he would choose Greece. Shortly after this revolution, Kapodistrias resigned from St Petersburg and spent many years working in European embassies instead of at home. Later he thinks about what kept him alive during his years in Russia: knowing that a grave awaits him in Corfu, “a grave”, he says, “he never thought he would sell the biggest palace in the world”.
Yet when the first delegation from the independence movement came to him, Kapodistrias allegedly turned them away. Things changed when he was elected the first leader of Greece in 1827: he arrived the following year in a country without money, administrative courts, schools, and an army that was accountable to any government.
It is said that Kapodistrias worked from 5 in the morning until late at night, and the film shows him working non-stop, going to mass and being respected by those around him. He famously insisted: “First we must make Hellenes, then make Hellas,” realizing that building a nation requires building its people first. He established schools, coined the first Greek coin, the Phoenix, organized the judiciary, and introduced the potato to end famine.
There are limits to what the current image of Kapodistrias can look like, however. Smaragdis’ film tries to make a beautiful scene out of his relationship with the noble Greek Roxandra Sturdza, who was probably not very romantic in real life, and his association with bohemian types such as the writer Alexander Pushkin, in whose stead Kapodistrias intervened when the king banished him for a politically offensive poem.
Jonathon Bond, a British researcher who has spent years studying Kapodistrias, says: “Since he was Pushkin’s friend, he must have been an interesting person rather than an office whiner.”
There is little the film can do about the politics of Kapodistrias, which historians agree leans towards the kind of autocracy they are used to in Russia. Some accused him of cruelty motivated by selfishness; some call him an enlightened oppressor, a description that Beaton doesn’t get far from the label.
“The Greeks wanted beautiful heroes after the war of independence, and he doesn’t provide that,” says Bond. “And if you’re a monarchist, he’s a failed republican.” He did not carry the sword in the war of independence, and what is worse, he tried to weaken the styles of the various generals that he had. “He was an ambassador of a race that they didn’t recognize.”
This tension is clearly shown in the film; there is no romance between the dictator in his black European robes and the handsome, gun-toting men around him.
Addressing the military leaders directly, Kapodistrias tells them that Greece is at war with the Ottomans, and that they must contribute. “Should we give?” one question. “Weren’t the Ottomans your enemies?” Kapodistrias asks. “You are the enemy too,” comes the reply. “Be careful”.
The main actor Antonis Myriagos describes how he will handle the role as “the story of a foretold death”. When he is warned about an attempt on his life, he goes anyway. As he walks to the church of St Spyridon in Nafplio, where the execution takes place, he is followed by what appears to be the music of weeping women, in the style of a Greek tragedy.
That Kapodistrias will not be forgotten outside of Greece can be explained “in part” by his execution, says Beaton. Apparently, he was “very controversial and divisive in his life, and, most interestingly, still is.” Beaton adds: “In recent years he has been championed by the political right, and criticized as a dictator by the left.”
In Greece, where the film opened on Christmas Day, critics and audiences were deeply divided. Professional reviewers were very weak; audiences welcomed it, as it has now been confirmed as the fifth highest-grossing Greek film of all time. The difference between the two judgments is the case of Kapodistrias; a man who still exists, almost two centuries later, instigating a debate about what Greece is and what it should be. “His story is fascinating,” says Beaton, “and should be better known.”
