The husband and wife team of director Jules Dassin and actress Melina Mercouri, who first enjoyed international success with the comedy Never on Sunday, collaborated for the last time on this powerful drama. Maya (Melina Mercouri) is a famous actress who is returning to the stage for a production of the classic Greek tragedy Medea, in which she will play the title character, a mother who murders her children. Kostas (Andreas Voutsinas), Maya's former lover, will be directing Maya in the production, and when he discovers that Brenda (Ellen Burstyn), an American woman, is housed in a nearby Greek prison for killing her offspring, he suggests that Maya should meet Brenda as a means of better understanding her character. Maya agrees, and their tense and emotional conversation is cross cut with the taxing rehearsals and performance of Medea. While A Dream Of Passion marked the last time Dassin directed Mercouri, they later appeared together in Keine Zufallige Geschichte, a documentary about their life and work.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide