Words, in their day to day use, are descriptive: they describe the state of affairs at a given time. When poetic language is used, however, language transcends this limitation: it precisely tries not to describe the world as is, but rather as it is experienced.
A terminally-ill Greek poet attempts to finish a poem by their national poet, Dionysios Solomos, yet he says to his daughter that he just cannot find the words for it. Even when trying to use language in its poetic function, Alexandros is unable to put the vast experience into words, it is beyond both description and poetization.
It is important to note the poetic nature of Solomos in this context, since he is the writer of the Hymn to Liberty, the poem par excellance about Greece’s independence. And to remark that the poem that he is trying to finish is precisely The Free Besieged.
All of this is of utmost importance, given his encounter with an Albanian “illegal” kid. It was never clearly stated, but given that scene, it is clear that this is set around the time when Uncle Enver ruled Albania in a dictatorship-like style. No person was allowed to leave the country, except for those on official business.
One of the besieged has been freed, and we may not know why, but Alexandros realises, very early in the film, that he ought to aid that kid or else he would be partaking in besieging him, caging him.
Their geographical closeness may be an accident, since Albania could be located elsewhere and the kid would have wound up elsewhere. But he ended on Greece, and was seen by a poet who is so marked by the national feelings of liberty and independence.
With this conflict in mind, Angelopoulos goes on to show precisely what Alexandros was concerned about: words are not to be found to describe the core ideas and experiences of life. Even in the most poetic parts, these fall short as to what the viewer actually experiences, and certainly shorter from what the characters are experiencing.
Words, even when used in a poetic manner, are most of the time incapable of expressing the full experience of our lives. By fixating himself on the Words, Alexandros has given up on actually experiencing life in itself. He is self-exiled from whatever life had in place for him.
We see, then, opposition in these two characters: the one being exiled by the political situation of his country, who is forced to live to his life to the fullest and the one who has become an exile by his own making, maybe not knowingly, but willingly. They are accompanying each other in this lonely life.
It is in these moments, when both of our main characters are just being for one another, that we see the full potential of this movie: Words are not to be seen, it is the experience of life itself; it is the otherness that makes me want to stay quiet because in our differences we are like, and in our silence we share our pain and become a better version of ourselves. In a sense, they are both saving the other by just being there, even if they remain silent, and even just for a day, since we know a day is more than just that.
Could keep on writing about all the thinkers that could shed light on this duality of language/silence such as Heidegger, Wittgenstein, etc. and bring forth notions of the Brahma and atma, but that would go against the point I am trying to make, so one must remain silent.