From Zorba the Greek to Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and 300 and from The Guns of the Navarone to Mamma Mia and Alexander, Greece has been the backdrop of a number of Hollywood films. Still, even those films that take place in a time in the country’s rich history, seem to favour either its iconic ancient era, or its 20th century shining moment – its contribution to WW2.

Now a new Hollywood production focuses on one of the periods in Greece’s history that means a lot for Greeks, but is pretty much uncharted territory for mainstream audiences around the globe: the war of independence against the Ottomans.

Cliffs of Freedom is the brainchild of Greek American writer and philanthropist Marianne Metropoulos, whose novel Daughter of Destiny is the basis of the film. Metropoulos is the co-writer and co-executive producer of the movie, which tells the story of a young Greek woman, Anna Christina, who enters an impossible love affair with Tariq a Turkish military officer, on the eve of the Greek uprising, facing facing the dilemma to choose between love and her people’s freedom.

Directed by Van Ling, whose claim to fame came through his special effects work on films like The Abyss, Terminator 2 and Twister, Cliffs of Freedom is an ambitious project of high production value, reportedly modelled after classic epics such as Dr Zhivago and Laurence of Arabia.

Tania Raymonde and Jan Uddin in a still from Cliffs of Freedom. PHOTO: Aegean Entertainment

Tania Raymonde (centre) in a still from Cliffs of Freedom. PHOTO: Aegean Entertainment

Jan Uddin and Christopher Plummer in a still from Cliffs of Freedom. PHOTO: Aegean Entertainment

The film stars Tania Raymonde (of Lost fame) and English-Bangladeshi actor Jan Uddin, but two names stand out amids the supporting cast: Broadway legend Patti LuPone, who plays Anna Christina’s grandmother, and Hollywood veteran Christopher Plummer (The Sound of Music, The Last Station), who plays Thanassi, Tariq’s teacher and mentor. This is not the only time Plummer plays a Greek; in the past he has incarnated both Oedipus, in the 1968 film adaptation of Sophocles’ classic tragedy, and the philosopher Aristotle in Oliver Stone’s Alexander.

Cliffs of Freedom opens on 1st March in New York and Los Angeles, with plans for a broader release in the following weeks.