Rebétiko

This movie is one of those almost forgotten gems produced by the Greek cinema. A great, well made, movie brought about by the truly conscientious efforts of a small team of people but confined into near obscurity by whoever now owns the distribution rights. The story line traces the evolution of the Rembetiko music, genre that could be described as the Greek blues, through some important milestones in the history of Greece in the early 1900's and at the same time through the tragic life of rembetiko singer Marika Ninou. Difficult to find it as DVD and the rare offerings on Amazon or eBay are well over-priced considering the atrocious picture quality. A pitiful shame indeed for such a great movie.

my first experience of this film was its soundtrack, which my dad had on tape, and had played every now and then. FANTASTIC SOUNDTRACK, XARCHAKOS IS A Genius. The music in this film captures the mood of the real rebetiko perfectly, but unfortunately i have to say that after hearing this soundtrack, i really did expect a lot more than i saw in the film itself. some of the acting was OK, including leonardou's, but much of the filming and editing was heavy handed; the over-saturated colour of the film was also too much for me, and the German occupation either had too much focus for its ultimate importance, or was not developed enough to have the importance that might have been intended. The reason that i haven't totally scrapped this film is for a few reasons. even though the film is not as smoothly cohesive as it could have been, and was a bit inconsistent, there were some very well produced "moments"; individual parts of the film where everything worked perfectly (probably my favorite part was the final scene. in my opinion, this is the only part of the film which really cooperated with the soundtrack. i got chills down my spine). Another thing is that the actors playing smaller characters dd a better job of acting than the protagonist, for example, the old man who dances the slow zeibekiko (and by the way PJA, it's zeibeKIKO, not zeibeTIKO.)

Considered to be one of the most powerful and emotional Greek movies, Rembetiko focuses on the life of an individual woman,a real person and through her personal story, it retells the story of Greece,from 1920 to 1955:the national disaster in Asia Minor,the one million refugees who came to Greece,the World War II,the Nazi occupation,the Civil War.The tragedy and the glory of a nation during the century.And all these bound with the music of rembetiko,the music of the outcasts.Great direction,great performances,great music.A voyage to history of the first half of the 20th century, but also a voyage to the origins of rembetiko.Realistic and dreamy.An original Greek epic.

The history underpinning this Film is the one that makes this film really unique. It is very hard for this film to be translated and make it understandable by the majority of people that can't speak Greek and may not feel the story. The story begins around 1920 in the coastal area of (now days)Turkey. Between the war most of the Greeks owned this area, however most of them were killed (not as soldiers but as unarmed people)and all the others were sent to Greece were they had to start their life from zero. The passion and the lyrics of the music as well is what makes this film one of the best in Greece. Rempetiko is this kind of music that was carried in main Greece by them.

Beautiful film and the music was very moving. This is a great film for people who want to delve deeper in to Greek culture. The many actresses that played Marika were very well chosen. Hats off to Ferris who wrote such a story. The scenery in the film really helped give an idea about the slums. I wish the subtitles were a bit better because I noticed there was more going on and not enough being translated. It is amazing how the blues genre of the world is the same in soul but different in sound. I would have loved a bit more history on Asia minor. The music at the lemon market is my favourite in the beginning. This story is not about the famous Greek singer although a lot of similarities do exist but amazing movie nonetheless.