Pascali's Island (1988)

Pascali's Island is a 1988 British drama film, based on the novel by Barry Unsworth. It was written and directed by James Dearden. It stars Ben Kingsley, Charles Dance and Helen Mirren. It was entered into the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.

The plot takes place on the Turk-occupied (and fictional) Greek island of Nisi. The film was largely shot on the Greek island of Symi and in Rhodes in the late summer of 1987.

Synopsis

In 1908 at Nisi, a small Greek Island under Ottoman rule, Turkish officials, Greek rebels, German emissaries and other foreign mercenaries mingle as they all try to keep the upper hand in that remote part of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. Basil Pascali, a half-British half-Cypriot man self considers a local feature in the island. Since his arrival twenty years before, he spies for the Sultan sending detailed reports about suspicious activities. Nobody reads or even acknowledges his observations, his payment has never been increased but still arrives regularly, so he continues his work as an informant with unfailing eagerness.

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