“No matter how many lectures, books and studies are published on the theft of the Parthenon Sculptures, and no matter how many sound arguments and evidence we present in support of their return, the wider public will never grasp the essence of the issue as powerfully as it can through the force of image and storytelling,” the director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, said in his introduction to the docudrama “The Woman Behind Elgin,” which premiered earlier this week opposite the Sacred Rock of the Acropolis.
The story of the Parthenon Sculptures has, indeed, been retold over and over again, from one side or the other, and argued from every tone: scholarly, propagandistic and personal, appealing to emotion or logic. This time around, the story is told through the perspective of a woman who was very close to the events, Lady Elgin, and is drawn from a series of private letters that shed light on how the sculptures were pillaged from the ancient Greek citadel.
This “micro-history that becomes macro-history,” according to Stampolidis, is the story around which this extensively researched documentary revolves. It is written and narrated by actress Mimi Denissi, who takes viewers to early 19th-century Europe to follow the footsteps of Lord and Lady Elgin as they leave Britain for the Ottoman Empire, where the British aristocrat is posted as a diplomat. From the outset, however, his true obsession is the monuments of the Acropolis.
The dramatization is enhanced by animation and music to immerse viewers in the atmosphere of the period. Interwoven throughout are interviews with experts, including archaeologist Elena Korka, as well as what Denissi described in her introduction as “British supporters” of Greece’s campaign for the return of the sculptures (also called marbles), among them actor, director and writer Stephen Fry.
Lady Elgin’s letters also serve as an important complementary source, helping to illuminate both the aesthetic sensibilities and the intentions behind Elgin’s mission and the activities of his associates in Greece. They provide details that, for the first time, are presented in a work clearly aimed at a broad public audience.
The two-part documentary, which is directed by Katerina Evangelakou and scheduled to air next season on state broadcaster ERT, is intended to inform and ultimately mobilize as many people as possible in support of Greece’s cause. The final word, of course, belongs to the other side, as Greek President Konstantinos Tassoulas remarked at the event.
“By reuniting the monument, may Great Britain prove that, even today, it remains not only Britain, but Great.”
His comment underscored the central message of the evening: that the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures ultimately depends on a decision by Britain, and that such a decision would be seen not merely as an act of restitution but as a demonstration of cultural leadership and historical responsibility.
