Theo Angelopoulos began to study law in Athens but broke up his studies to go to the Sorbonne in Paris in order to study literature. When he had finished his studies, he wanted to attend the School of Cinema at Paris but decided instead to go back to Greece. There he worked as a journalist and critic for the newspaper “Demokratiki Allaghi” until it was banned by the military after a coup d’état. Now unemployed, he decided to make his first movie, Anaparastasi (1970). Internationally successful was his trilogy about the history of Greece from 1930 to 1970 consisting of Meres tou ’36 (1972), O thiasos (1975), and Oi kynigoi (1977). After the end of the dictatorship in Greece, Angelopoulos went to Italy, where he worked with RAI (and more money). His movies then became less political. —IMDb
Astonishingly beautiful; It transcends sentimentality. This is not a film that'll make you weep.
There is no exaggeration when it comes to what you've heard about the imagery. WOW. Everything about it seems to strive to be Angelopoulos' masterpiece, and it certainly has everything in place but one key element: emotional investment in the characters. Alexandra Aidini is the only one to contribute to a huge, devastating wallop by the end, but if everyone else did I can only imagine how great this would've been.
http://independent.academia.edu/SehlemSebik/Papers/962935/A_SEMIOTICAL_READING_THE_WEEPING_MEADOW
His career spanned four decades and, in 1998, he won the Palme d’Or for Eternity and a Day.