Arkadi stands on a fertile plateau in the hills south of Rethymno, in Crete. Its church presents one of the most accomplished Renaissance facades in the Greek islands, a Venetian-influenced composition of columns, niches and a belfry, dated to the late sixteenth century and set within a fortified rectangular enclosure of cells, refectory and cellars. That architecture alone would justify a visit. But Arkadi is inseparable from what happened here in November 1866, during the Cretan revolt against Ottoman rule, when hundreds of insurgents and civilians who had taken refuge inside were besieged and the gunpowder store was blown up rather than surrender. The event resonated across Europe and turned the monastery into a national symbol of resistance and self-sacrifice. The film holds both threads together: the calm of the courtyard, the cypress, the carved stone and the monastic routine on one side; on the other, the scarred powder magazine and the memory that Crete still attaches to this place.
