A Dream of Passion

A Dream of Passion (1978)

Κραυγή Γυναικών

Maya is a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda, a Bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.

Date of release
1978-05-21
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 50m
Genres
Drama
Director
Jules Dassin

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Greece
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

A Dream of Passion is a 1978 Greek drama film directed by Jules Dassin. The story follows Melina Mercouri as Maya, an actress playing Medea, who seeks out Brenda Collins, portrayed by Ellen Burstyn, a woman who is in jail for murdering her own children to punish her husband for his infidelity.

Production

Jules Dassin discussed A Dream of Passion in an interview for the New York Times in early 1978. He said that the story was inspired by a trial in Italy (fifteen years earlier) of a woman who had killed her children after her husband left her for another woman: “She was so compelling and strong. She sat there grieving for her children and at the same time, not repenting for what she did. She felt she was right to do it.”

Despite being obsessed with the idea of filming the story, Dassin couldn’t “reconcile his compassion for the woman with his horror for her crime.” But after seeing his wife, Melina Mercouri, in a stage production of Medea, he realized how he could approach the story.

About the film, Dassin went on to say, “It’s one of the two films I’ve made that I’ve cared most about, the other being the documentary about the student uprising.”

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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