A journey, a search for rembetiko and sephardic song to mark the eventful life of Roza Eskenazi, from Constantinople to Athens, Pireaus and America.

Roza Eskenazi sang songs and lived life with passion, fire and love.This is the story of three young musicians from Greece, Turkey and Israel that embark on an exciting musical journey, to reveal for the first time, the story of the first and most famous Greek Rebetiko singer.From Istanbul to Thessaloniki and Athens, through her life and music, we will introduce a world that has once existed and its traces today.

She was the most famous singer of the 30s' in Greece and Turkey, the Diva of Rebetiko. With her posters displayed in every Gramophone store, her bohemian looks would drive even the toughest men crazy. (From the short story 'Roza', by Dinos Christianopoulos)

In a colorful and full of life cinematic and musical journey, the film 'My Sweet Canary', will follow three young musicians from Israel, Turkey and Greece, on a journey motivated by the influence of Roza Eskenazi's life, as an artist and as a woman, an influence that drew each one of them, for his own reasons, to play her musicin his native country today.

Tomer Katz, an Israeli Oud and bouzouki player; Martha D Lewis, a British born Greek-Cypriot singer/composer and Mehtap Demir, a Turkish singer and musician, will lead us throughout Roza's life story over the 20th century, a story that intertwines with their musical journey throughout today's exotic Rebetiko scenes of Turkey and Greece, playing and meeting with local musicians and giving new interpretations to Roza's borderless songs revived today in bars and dance floors in Athens,

Istanbul, Thessaloniki and around the world.

 Roza's personal story, spread from her Jewish Sephardic origin in Istanbul and Thessaloniki, and on to Athenswhere she rose to fame at the end of the 20's, becoming the first and most recorded Rebetiko singer with more than 500 recorded songs in Greek, Turkish, Armenian and Ladino- and up to the tragic end of her life, will be told by her friends, family members, the musicians who

followed her and, for the first time, her biographer. The Rebetiko music lies in the meeting point of the east and the west. The "Greek Blues" as it is often referred to, emerged from the hash dens and prison cells of Greece at the beginning of the 20th century. Documenting the 3 musicians through their cultural, geographical and musical journey, the film will reveal the social and political aspects of the Rebetiko phenomena as well. Through the life story of Roza Eskenazi, we will introduce a world that once existed and follow its traces today, as well as the mutual and personal search of the three musicians that joined together in a bond made possible by Roza Eskenazi, and the Rebetiko music.

Co-starring in the film next to Yasmin Levy are Tomer Katz, Martha Lewis, Mehtap Demir and others
Director: Roy Sher
 

With the collaboration of the Asia-Minor Union of Cyprus

Sponsor: The Embassy of Israel in Cyprus

http://www.mysweetcanary.com/