This is one of those movies that moves me to enough to reconsider my place in the world. Vis a vis the treasured assumptions of my rebellious youth. It is a strangely life affirming movie in unexpected ways. A girl who is so alone, not for years or even decades but for centuries, longs for intimacy. She yearns for love but is cut off from the world by a condition of her's and her mother's survival. She doubts her mother and confides in a sympathetic stranger. Reaching out,imploring and hopeful. This attempt at intimacy proves the wisdom of her mother's caution and imperils them both. This movie casts a spell. Let it wash over you. If you have ever felt the isolation of being a stranger the heart of this movie will resonate with you. Was it the values of your parents and their bizarre adherence to a code that was meaningless to you that made you feel a stranger? But after years of experience you begin to understand but cannot accept these egregiously unfair conditions of being. You rebel. You put all at risk. Not just for yourself but for all that you care for. It is the natural compassion of an unexpected ally that saves you and your loved ones. In the end you have the power to impart the secret of immortality. A gift to bestow on the dying, the worthy life, to be ended too soon. You have a gift.
Review of Byzantium
