''Rembetiko'' () is a 1983 film directed by

Costas Ferris Costas Ferris (; born 18 April 1935) is a Greek film director, writer, actor, and producer. He wrote the lyrics of Aphrodite's Child's album ''666''. His 1983 film '' Rembetiko'' won the Silver Bear at the 34th Berlin International Film Festiv ...

and written by Costas Ferris and Sotiria Leonardou, with original music by

Stavros Xarchakos Stavros Xarchakos, Greek: Σταύρος Ξαρχάκος (born 14 March 1939) is a Greek composer and conductor. Stavros Xarchakos was born in Athens, where he studied at the Athens Conservatoire. He has family origins from the Mani Peninsul ...

. The film is based on the life of

rebetiko Rebetiko (, ), plural rebetika ( ), occasionally transliterated as rembetiko or rebetico, is a term used to designate previously disparate kinds of urban Greek music which in the 1930s went through a process of musical syncretism and develope ...

singer

Marika Ninou Marika Ninou (; born Evangelia Atamian []; 1922 – 23 February 1957) was an Armenian-Greek rebetiko singer. Biography She was born in 1922 on the ship "Evangelistria" that brought her mother, her two sisters and her eight-year-old brother, Ba ...

and gained

cult status A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, book ...

in Greece.".:BiblioNet : Rebetika / Férris, Kóstas"

Plot

This musical drama sweeps through a turbulent 40 years in popular singer Marika's (Sotiria Leonardou) life – and in the history of Greece – starting with the singer's birth in

Smyrna Smyrna ( ; , or ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna ...

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

in 1917. Marika was deported to Greece along with all the other Greeks in Smyrna when she was seven years old, and a few years later, her parents started a career as a musician and a singer in a nightclub/bar. In the short space of one decade, Marika witnesses her father murder her mother, runs away from home, has a baby, and comes back to the nightclub to sing in an act with a childhood friend, Yorgos and a

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', , from Greek , from Turkish ) is a musical instrument popular in West Asia (Syria, Iraq), Europe and Balkans (Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey). It is a member of the long-necked lute fam ...

player, Babis. Success finally comes at the expense of the suicide of another female singer at the club (named Rosa), but then Yorgos is exiled for political reasons, and she and Babis leave for other venues. Although Marika carries a torch for Babis, their relationship never seems to work out, and after many years and World War II go by, she sends her daughter away to a convent school (to later become a dancer in a cabaret, much to Marika's chagrin) and goes on a tour in America. She then returns to Greece to find herself supplanted by a younger singer named Matina who has caught the attention of Babis. Near the end of the movie, she is stabbed in the stomach the night of her reunion concert. Marika dies of her wounds and is buried by the people she sang with as they sing in her memory at the cemetery. There have been hypotheses that the story is based on the life of

with Babis playing the part of Vasilis Tsitsanis. However, there are glaring differences between the film and the real life of Marika Ninou. Marika Ninou only began singing after World War II. While she went to America, she never went with Vasilis Tsitsanis but in fact went with Kostas Kaplanis. She then returned to Greece and died of cancer. The film mentions a conflict with a singer named Rosa (

Roza Eskenazi Roza Eskenazi (mid-1890s – 2 December 1980, Greek: Ρόζα Εσκενάζυ) was a Jewish-Greek dancer and singer of ''rebetiko'', Greek folk music, Kanto and Turkish folk music born in Istanbul, whose recording and stage career extended fro ...

?) but no such incident has ever been documented.

Awards

''Rembetiko'' was nominated for the

Golden Bear The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...

award at the

34th Berlin International Film Festival The 34th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 17–28 February 1984. The festival opened with ''The Noah's Ark Principle'' by Roland Emmerich. The retrospective was dedicated to German-American actor, screenwriter, producer an ...

in 1984, and won the

Silver Bear The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

. In the same year, the film was awarded the Special Jury Award at the Valencia Film Festival. Sotiria Leonardou won the prize for "Best Actress" at the 1983

Thessaloniki Film Festival The Thessaloniki Film Festival is a Thessaloniki-based cultural institution focusing on cinema. The Institution organizes the Thessaloniki International Film Festival every November and the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival every March, while its ...

for her portrayal of Ninou and the film itself tied for "Best Picture", and won three other awards as well (two "Best Supporting Actor" prizes, and one for music). In 1984, the film was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix at the Alexandria Film Festival. In 2000, it was voted the most popular Greek film in the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

Main cast

*Themis Bazaka as Andriana *Nikos Dimitratos as Panagis *Nikos Kalogeropoulos as Babis *Sotiria Leonardou as Marika *Michalis Maniatis as Giorgakis *Spyros Mavides as Fondas *Konstantinos Tzoumas as Yiannis ("Juan") *Vicky Vanita as Roza *Giorgos Zorbas as Thomas

References

External links

*{{IMDb title , id=0086182 , title=Rembetiko 1983 films 1980s Greek-language films Films about music and musicians 1983 drama films Films directed by Costas Ferris Cultural depictions of folk musicians Cultural depictions of Greek people Films set in Greece Films shot in Greece Films set in the 1910s Films set in the 1920s Films set in the 1930s Films set in the 1940s 1980s biographical drama films Greek biographical drama films 1980s Greek films Greek-language biographical drama films