Despite announcing that 1998 Palme d'Or winner An Eternity And A Day would be his last feature, Greek director Theo Angelopoulos has revealed that he is developing a trilogy of films exploring the subject of Greek exiles throughout the 20th Century.

The first film in the trilogy, The Weeping Field, is taken from a short story by Angelopoulos' long-time collaborator, the Italian script writer Tonino Guerra. It is to be shot in Greece and cover the period from 1919, when the Red Army invaded Odessa, to the end of the civil war in 1949.

The second film, The Third Wing, will be set between 1953 and 1971 and shoot in Russia, Uzbekhistan, Siberia, Trieste in Italy and the border between Austria and Hungary. The third film - to be shot in New York and Toronto - is called The Eternal Return and will cover the period from 1971 until the present day.

"I have both considered abandoning film-making and directing smaller films, but I realised that I breathe in epic terms. When I was offered the chance to make a trilogy, I had to accept it," said Angelopoulos speaking at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

An Eternity And A Day was backed by the Greek Film Centre, Italy's Istituto Luce and France's Le Studio Canal Plus and Paradis Films, at least some of which are likely to join Angelopoulos on his latest, more ambitious, project.