Athens Picks Director Over Bishop

ATHENS — The government Friday backed a film director battling a Greek Orthodox bishop who has threatened to vandalize props and excommunicate anyone working on his movie.

The bishop contends the film is unpatriotic in calling for the abolition of national borders. He also charges that a copy of the script he has seen contains erotic scenes.

“The government unreservedly supports Theodore Angelopoulos. . . ,”’ Culture Minister Tzannis Tzannetakis said.

Angelopoulos, one of Greece’s best known directors, is to start filming “The Suspended Stride of the Stork” in Athens on Dec. 3 and in the northern border town of Florina on Dec. 17.

But the town’s bishop, Avgoustinos Kantiotis, has threatened to “destroy the props with fire and excommunicate” anyone involved in the film, Angelopoulos says.