This film was banned for three years in Greece until the newly elected Socialist government allowed its release in 1981. The setting for the film is 1922 -- the Greek army is leaving Asia Minor and in its wake, the Turkish army rounds up the remaining Greek civilians and either kills them, or sends them on forced marches outside of the region. Many Greeks tried to escape when their army left; not all were successful or far-sighted enough to understand their fate if they stayed. Needless to say, there was a simmering hatred for the Greek and Armenian communities in Asia Minor because they were seen as controlling the businesses (to the detriment of the Turks), and that belief added fuel to the fire of a long-standing prejudice. This film, that exposes the atrocities against the Greeks as they were uprooted and killed outwardly or left to die from the effects of their exile, may have been banned in Greece simply because it shows the departing Greek army leaving the civilians to their fate.