Living in exile after their father's death, the children of an usurped and murdered king converge to exact eye-for-an-eye revenge.
A powerful rendering of the tragedy of Elektra by Euripides, second in a trilogy. The film begins with a summary treatment without dialogue of the action of the preceding play, "The Agamemnon", in which the wicked Queen Clytemnestra and her lover Aesgisthes murder her husband Agamemnon upon his return from the Trojan War.—Paul Brians <[email protected]>
As Agamemnon bathes upon returning from the Trojan War, his wife and her lover kill him in revenge for a daughter Agamemnon sacrificed to the gods years earlier. His two surviving children thereafter live in different kinds of exile: son Orestes is immediately taken far away to remain unharmed, and daughter Elektra is left behind and made a virtual prisoner in the palace, then forced into an undignified marriage to a middle-aged farmer and sent away, which isn't all that bad since the farmer has a generous and caring heart. Still, Electra wants vengeance, and when Orestes finally returns to her, grown up and accompanied by Pylades, plans are made and vengeance is carried out against their mother and her co-murdering lover.—statmanjeff
Agamemnon returns victorious to Mycenae after the end of the costly Trojan War, only to die at the hands of his conniving, unfaithful wife Clytemnestra, and her lover Aegisthus. As Agamemnon's son Orestes is secretly sent away by his mentor, the king's beautiful daughter Electra stays in Mycenae, only to witness her mother's wedding to Aegisthus. More and more, fierce hatred and the thirst for retribution replace her innocence, forcing her to weave an elaborate scheme. As a result, when Orestes returns home, the determined siblings summon up the courage to murder duplicitous Aegisthus, making sure that their adulterous mother shares his fate. Shocked by the double homicide, the people of Mycenae demand justice and banish Electra and Orestes from Argos forever. Can they find atonement after matricide?—Nick Riganas
