Capossela, the rebetiko and the crisis

The singers presents in Venice his documentary on Greek music and economic crisis

Vinicio Capossela and Andrea Segre. An odd couple for the 69^th Venice International Film Festival. The first one is a popular Italian singers, always in search of new sounds. The second one is a respected filmmakers that in 2011 presented in Venice his first fiction film, “Li and the Poet”, that won several prizes.

They started working together in Grece, to tell the story of rebetiko, the ellenic traditional music, in a journey to understand the impact of the economic crisis on that people and on the entire Europe.

“Vinicio called me last March to explain me his idea” says Segre “and while we were preparing the documentary, we realized that we had the chance to tell the story of many people who are in a situation of great difficulties due to the economic situation. We left for Greece in mid-June and we shot in Thessaloniki and Athens”.

The rebetiko was born in the twenties, is a popular music that has given voice to the protests of the Hellenic people, since the greek-turkish war. “The rebetiko is tavern music” added Capossela “to listen to eating and drinking, songs that speak of love, politics, social struggle, and they are a key part of the Greek cultural tradition”.

“The first time I heard it live was during one of my trip in 1997, in Thessaloniki, and I was immediately fascinated. I began to study it, to hear it and at some point I got the desire to tell it. Expecially now that the greek people feel they have the whole Europe against them, being accused of being one of the causes of the economic crisis the EU. They express their dissent through the rebetiko”.

Capossela is co-writer of the film along with Segre. “It will be a difficult job, the material that we have is beautiful” Segre added. “We hope to be able to finish everything the next spring, in order to present the film in the months ahead”.

In the meanwhile Vinicio Capossela is on tour with the show “Rebetiko Gymnastas”, a musical journey to discover the sounds of rebetiko.