At its heart, the movie is a "Greco-Turkish Romeo and Juliet". The protagonist, Roza (played with "magical" depth by Leda Protopsalti), is an enigmatic old woman living in Athens who has spent her life hiding a truth even from her granddaughter, Marianna. The investigation reveals that Roza, a daughter of a wealthy Greek family, fell in love with Ismail, a Turk—a union that was forbidden and led to tragic, "inconvenient truths" including a pregnancy and a "blood sacrifice".

The film opens during the 1987 Aegean crisis, a time of renewed tension between Greece and Turkey. This framing device is crucial; it suggests that while the "Great Fire of Smyrna" happened in 1922, its heat still warms (or burns) the politics of the present. Dimitris, an architect and collector, discovers a bloodstained wedding dress and an old photograph in an antique shop in Izmir (Smyrna). These relics are not just historical artifacts—they are the keys to a "family's tragic secret" that has been suppressed for over sixty years.

: How individual lives are crushed by the "national-political leaders" and their agendas.

While the cinematography is described as "lyrical and elegant" and a "paean to a lost past," some critics from Neos Kosmos argue the film sometimes struggles with its dialogue, which can feel "unnatural" or overly "full of proverbs". However, the emotional resonance of the central mystery and the "significant cast" make it an "educational movie" that highlights the disaster war causes to both sides.

You can stream Roza of Smyrna on several major platforms, which typically offer Greek audio and subtitle options:

Roza of Smyrna is more than a romance; it is a meditation on how history is made of the "small stories of regular people". It reminds us that "life does not worth fighting" and that understanding the "others" is the only way to heal a fractured past. Roza of Smyrna (2016) - IMDb