LOST IN THE BEWILDERNESS (2014)
97 minutes

SPOILER ALERT

“Lost in the Bewilderness” is a feature-length documentary about the filmmaker’s cousin Lucas, kidnapped at age five from his native Greece, and found on the eve of his sixteenth birthday in the U.S. This story of international parental abduction, filmed for over twenty-five years, chronicles Lucas’s journey of growth and self-discovery, and culminates with Lucas becoming a father himself. “Lost in the Bewilderness” is not only a detective story but also a lyrical meditation on childhood, lost and found, and an exploration of how the themes of ancient Greek myth and tragedy, with the family at their center, are still very much alive in the modern world.

Alexandra Anthony began filming “Lost in the Bewilderness” in 1984, eleven years after Lucas’s disappearance, when his father Orestes received a phone call in Greece from his ex-wife Athena saying, “I have your son. We live in Laurel, Maryland. If you want him, come and get him.” Athena had told Lucas nothing about his past and he spoke no Greek. The centerpiece of the film is Lucas’s re-acquaintance with his Greek family – the struggle to communicate, the unspoken emotion – as father, grandmother, great-aunt, aunt, and young half-sister patiently and lovingly, and sometimes comically, try to fill in the blanks of time and distance. As Lucas grows up before the viewers’ eyes, we witness how time’s passage affects all things.

“Lost in the Bewilderness” was filmed in Super-8, 16mm, SD, and HD. Anthony works completely independently – she shot, recorded sound, edited, wrote, and narrates the film.