Who doesn’t love the nostalgic time travels offered by rare black and white documentaries? René Zuber and Roger Leenhardt visited Crete 80 years ago and recorded the everyday life on the island: farmers and shepherds at work, women spinning wool, a traditional wedding (with a bewildered bride), a feast with a lyra and a lute, the hospitalité cretoise (Cretan hospitality), the stone-made mills in the Lassithi Plateau waving their sails at a time when the current asphalt road was still a rugged trail.
Our favorite part was the shootings in Agios Nikolaos and Spinalonga, where the camera caught the lepers living on the island - a really rare document. The gaze of the filmmakers also fell upon Knossos before it concludes at the port of Heraklion, with images so familiar yet so bizarre, leaving us with the terrifying impression of time and human intervention.
Enjoy the documentary "En Crète sans les dieux"!
En Crète sans les dieux, de René Zuber et Roger Leenhardt from FRL Archives on Vimeo.