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Soule T. Bitting, a fifty-five year old American born in Chicago, arrived on Amorgos - one of the Cycladic Islands in Greece – in 1978. He liked what he saw, settled there and basically retired from our world.
Soule is one of those characters you heard about or read about, but you didn't know they still existed. He earns his living as a fisherman, he lovingly repaints and repairs his small boat – Stavroula - and he rents out some rooms to tourists. His house by the water is a small gallery, full of Soule’s paintings and of works of art given to him by his house guests. Each object has a story… because Soule is also a painter, a writer and something of a philosopher who appreciates a fine drop. He cultivates an old vineyard he dug up on his land, and a glass is never far from his hand...
He talks of the people he loves, who welcomed and supported him over the years… he tells of the women he loved, of the friends who are long gone. Yet, behind the image of the easy-going outdoor-man, one senses a vulnerable, sensitive soul - a tragic character reminiscent of a Hemingway. Soule is cultured, even poetic - rather unconsciously so. The film captures these precious moments that catch you in the throat : when he looks silently at a picture of his ex-wife – filmed from the back – you instantly know by the way he holds himself that he still loves her, although he knows he’s lost her forever. Or the memory of the day he was called up for Vietnam...
On Amorgos, Soule T. Bitting lives in great simplicity – surrounded by friends and visitors, his paintings, his boat, his memories and … his lap top. An unexpected object in these surroundings, but it represents the window that opens to the outside world, his link with the world he somehow left behind. The music - specially composed for the film – adds a touch of lyricism. Eminently ‘watchable’…
Festivals and Awards:
* 2006: "Prix Kimitété" at the "Festival du film insulaire", Groix (France)