On the quay of the Venetian harbour of Chania, in western Crete, a low cubic building topped by a large hemispherical dome and a row of smaller ones faces the water. It is the mosque known as the Mosque of the Janissaries, raised after the Ottoman conquest of the city in the seventeenth century and generally considered the earliest Ottoman monument on the island. Its position is the whole point: an Islamic sanctuary placed at the head of a harbour built by Venice, in direct dialogue with the lighthouse, the arsenals and the fortifications of the previous rulers. Architecturally it is a compact, elegantly proportioned structure with an arcaded porch, whose minaret has not survived. No longer a place of worship, the building now serves as an exhibition space, which allows the film to move freely through the interior and to read the geometry of the domes from within. Around it, the harbour of Chania offers one of the most photogenic waterfronts in the Mediterranean.
