Rembetiko
Rembetika is a form of musical expression born out of the Opium dens from regions of Greece, at the turn of last century.
During politically turbulent times, Rembetika came to symbolise the struggle of the dispossessed and downtrodden, reaching its peak during the German occupation of Greece, and the subsequent Greek civil war. Rembetika therefore became the music of the Underground.
Featuring a culturally faithful soundtrack by Stavros Xarhakos, along with a couple of old, traditional Rembetika songs, Rembetiko the film is based on the lives of singer and bazooka player Vassilis Tsitsanis and, perhaps more importantly, Marika Nanou, the Armenian-Greek Rembetiko singer who fled the fighting in Asia Minor, between the Greeks and Turks (the so-called "Asia Minor Catastrophe").
Rembetiko has a hypnotic quality. There are long stretches during this film without dialogue, which poses no problem, since the music and imagery are so expressive.