George Kallis composes ‘Cliffs of Freedom’ soundtrack [VIDEOS]

The much awaited historical Hollywood film’s score is based on traditional Greek music

George Kallis conducting the orchestra at the film score recording. Photo: Supplied

9 May 2019 11:55am

It is not the first time Greece has taken the centrestage in the Hollywood film industry be it antiquity and mythology or the World War I&II events.

A new film, based on the best selling novel ‘Daughter of Destiny’ has become the basis of the much anticipated production, Cliffs of Freedom.

The film, like the book, is the brainchild of Greek American writer and philanthropist Marianne Metropoulos. It takes place during the period of the Ottoman Occupation and focuses on the Greek people’s struggle for independence whilst revolving around the bravery and sacrifice between a Greek village girl and a Turkish Ottoman Colonel who fall in love.

After a very successful theatrical run in the US, Cliffs of Freedom is being released in Greece and Cyprus, with Australia to follow suit, hopefully in the next 2-3 months.

Equally enticing is the movie’s musical score, which has been written by critically acclaimed and multi-awarded composer George Kallis who was able to bring his Hellenic heritage into life using Greek instruments and rhythms within the orchestra using instruments such as clarinet, lute, Cretan lyra, vocals, and rhythms such as Zeimbekiko and Syrto.

“After reading the script I was immediately inspired to compose music that is derived from our Greek history but also kept the orchestral template of the old-fashioned melodramatic scores of Hollywood,” Kallis told Neos Kosmos.

Having recently won two major awards – the International Film Music Critics Association for Breakthrough Composer of the Year and the Jerry Goldsmith Award for best feature score for Disney’s ‘The Last Warrior – Kallis put together a melody that has been praised by film music critics the likes of Jon Broxton.

“Cliffs of Freedom is…a truly outstanding piece of music.The orchestral forces are bold and impressive, the ethnic instruments and vocal stylings are appropriate and give the score more than a dash of local color, and the thematic density of the score is tremendously impressive,” Broxton said.

The soundtrack, which has been released Aegean Entertainment ends gloriously with the only use of the bouzouki at the very last moments of the film. The release also includes the title song ‘I’ll Wait For You’, performed by Ariana George and written by Kallis and Metropoulos.

It is available in all major online music stores, and music collectors can also purchase the CD which contains further details about the production.

You can hear snippets from the soundtrack in the video below: