Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland

The story of a man forced to choose between his country and his love

‘Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland’ is the story of a man from Salonika on the eve of the First World War who is forced to choose between his love for a woman and his love for his country as the Ottoman Empire is drawn into the war and faces collapse.

Taking place in Istanbul, Salonika, Paris and Macedonia between 1908 and 1926, Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland is the story of lives that have been turned upside down by rebellion, revolution and war. It is the story of the Greek declaration of independence, of the Jews of Salonika being forced into exile, of the Bulgarians fighting for their independence and of the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the struggle to create a new nation out of its crumbling ruins. It is also the story of one man’s search for his true calling amidst the chaos of a turbulent historical era, the story of a man caught between his love for his country and his love for his woman. Farewell, My Beautiful Homeland is a story of unfulfilled dreams and the call of history. And underpinning it all is one fundamental question, one fundamental struggle: which takes precedence – the state or the people?