• Director(s):

    CALDERON (PHILIPPE)

  • Producer(s):

    ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2002

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD

Byzantine Complexity follows one man, Paltin Nottara, across Central and Eastern Europe on a search for his roots which takes him deep into the labyrinth of Byzantine history.

Paltin Nottara is the scion of an important Byzantine family, the Nottaras, one member of which, Loukas, a Grand Duke and the chancellor of the last Byzantine Emperor, died tragically in the fall of the Empire in 1453. His goal is to find out what is left of Byzantium today - to what extent a section of Europe has been shaped by the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The film retraces the history of the Byzantine Empire through the stories of the two men, Paltin and Loukas. They are linked not only by blood, but perhaps even more significantly by the apocryphal memoirs which may have been written by Loukas Nottara shortly before his death. Through the Memoirs, Paltin's reflections on his identity, and his encounters with other people who have a connection with this most Oriental part of Europe, Byzantine Complexity attempts to unearth the remains of the Oriental Roman culture that disappeared with the fall of Byzantium in 1453.