America, America - Part 4 - The Anatolian Smile (1963 - Eli Kazan)

Title: America America Year: 1963 Director: Elia Kazan Writer: Elia Kazan Actors: Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolff, Harry Davis, Elena Karam Language: English Runtime: 174 min Released: 17 Jun 1964 Plot: America America (The Anatolian Smile), written, adapted, directed, and produced by Elia Kazan (1963). Despite his fateful decision to testify before the House Committee on Unamerican Activities (HUAC) in 1952 (the year he made ‘Viva Zapata!’), Actor’s Studio founder and former American CP member (and anti-Stalinist) Elia Kazan was, for me, one of America’s great film directors. Possibly, his most powerful but overlooked film — one with political relevance in this era of mass migration of refugees escaping war and the brutal repression of political dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities— was his autobiographical 1963 epic ‘America, America’ (‘The Anatolian Smile’ in the UK). The voice-over is spoken by Kazan himself: ‘I am a Greek by blood, a Turk by birth, and an American