The "woman from Himara" in the MEGA series must speak Portuguese

In recent days, a controversy has erupted on social media over a scene from the new MEGA series. The Innocents, in which a woman "from Himara" appears speaking Albanian. In the book The Convict by the Corfu native Konstantinos Theotokis, on which the series' script is based, the heroine is described as an "Arvanite Christian" from 1886, not as an Albanian-speaking Muslim.

Οι Χιμαραίοι άστραψαν και βρόντηξαν. Η παραθαλάσσια γη της Χιμάρας είναι αποκομμένη, σχεδόν σαν νησί. Από τον Βορρά τη φυλάνε οι γκρεμοί του Λογαρά, ανατολικά ορθώνονται οι απόκρημνες πλαγιές των Ακροκεραύνιων, δυτικά απλώνεται το Ιόνιο, και μόνο νότια υπάρχει ένα στενό πέρασμα γης που τη συνδέει με τους Αγίους Σαράντα. Κοντολογίς, στη Χιμάρα είχαν τον νου τους περισσότερο στους πειρατές· γι’ αυτό και τα παραθαλάσσια οικόπεδα τα έδιναν στις κόρες, ενώ στους γιους έδιναν τη γη ψηλά στο βουνό. Οι Οθωμανοί πασάδες, λίγο-πολύ, είχαν αφήσει τους Χιμαραίους στην ησυχία τους: και δύσβατο το μέρος, και ατίθασοι οι κάτοικοι. Μέχρι και σταρένιο ψωμί τους έδιναν, ενώ σε άλλες περιοχές έτρωγαν μόνο καλαμποκίσιο.

Joint article by Vučić and Rama on the European perspective of the Western Balkans

But what bothered the chimaeraeans Was not only the albanian language, but also the scene of the heroine's rape in the river, where the other women are shown looking on without reacting, as well as her spontaneous, voluntary Ostracism. The chimaeraeans are called Captains. "The mountains are for captains," they say themselves. The Chimaeraeans are called putsaresses.

The screenwriter of the series responded to the historical and experiential arguments of the people of Himariot with "definitive explanations." Definitive why? Because they are eternal? Or perhaps because they are intolerant of criticism and questioning? How much totalitarianism can "definitive" hide? In her post, the screenwriter, after a series of "interpretations" of Theotokis's work, concludes that "the scripted metaphor" does not "impose modern national categorizations."

Kostis Papagiorgis said that the greatest enemy of a work is its creator. Gabriel García Márquez had the opposite view: the greatest enemies of a work are its scholars and interpreters. “Novelists,” he wrote, “do not want to say more than they say.”

The concept of nation is dominant in the Old Testament and fundamental in Iliad of Homer. And today, man is above all his nation; the hard core of his identity. The nation summarizes, it offers economy of speech. We say "he is Moroccan" and all the beauty of the place and the flutter of his language come to mind.

But the answers that the Chimeraeans are looking for should not be expected from where they are looking for them. They will find them in a recent joint interview between the screenwriter and the director of the series on STEPGregory Bekos writes:

"Their house is located far from the bustling center of Athens, in a quiet and tidy area. Nikos Koutelidakis and Eleni Zioga, his wife and artistic partner for decades, welcome us warmly into their living room and offer us coffee. Warm colors, soft lighting, a refined atmosphere."

“Before we begin, I would like to ask you a question,” says the experienced director. “What was, let’s say, the immediate feeling you had upon entering the space?” he continues. “Intimacy and tranquility,” I reply. And I mean it.
"'Great, we'll keep that. I strive for that kind of atmosphere to prevail in the filming I do. A bubble of creative safety.'"

What bothered the Himareans was not the Albanian language or the rape scene. What bothers those "from there" is the hollow complacency and blind arrogance of the national center in culture and politics, which ends in obscurantism and ignorance. It is precisely this "safety bubble", the "quiet and orderly region", that knows nothing but itself.

The "woman from Himara" in the MEGA series can also speak Portuguese, if that's what the Athens salons want. Brazilian Portuguese is even better — even more exotic.

But the woman of Himara, who still lights the lamp today as she did during the Ottoman Empire and the communist regime of Hoxha, and who spoke Greek to her child for more than 2,700 years, deserves a different respect.

It does not take the name of Himara in vain.

*Myrena Servitzoglou is a communications consultant and prose writer.