Varvara Doumanidou, The Director
How the favorite wine is for the well-known creator a "passport" to the modern Greek theater of Murselas and Kehaidis.
"Wine is always there, to seal something. To fill us or to empty us. To remind us of or make us forget. We all walk the roads of wine, which unite us with our divine self".
RETURN TO THE FIRST NOVELTY – SCENE 1.
Food and drink are two of the surest "passports" back to earlier periods of our lives – perhaps even to individual moments that scarred us. A taste or smell is often the safest tool to recall the past – a reflexive 'opening' of a window to the past.
We ask the director Varvara Doumanidou about her own recalls, about the moments in her life that bring to the surface a glass of retsina: "It is a fact that I have been drinking retsina for many years," she replies. "And it is also a fact that I have associated this particular type of wine with my young years, in school clubs and open-air parties and, later, in taverns with friends, in rebetadika, to the one and only football match I went to in my life. There was always something popular about retsina – perhaps even its name always reminded me of the modern Greek theater of Murselas and Kehaidis. Something easy and affordable. It also reminds me of something from my parents' parties. Plates of fries and fish and half-full glasses of retsina on a summer dinner table by the sea. And laughs. And carefree. It also reminds me of the PASOK youth celebrations on the grass of the beach, with the green fluorescent lanterns and sausage sandwiches and Theodorakis on the speakers".
SWEET AND MEMORY.
And yet: this space-time "passport" has long remained locked in the "time closet" of history – a guilty pleasure, scarred by decades of failures. The torts of many years almost took away from this emblematic wine the brilliance of the two elements that make up its very soul: the vine and the pine. Fortunately, this is changing day by day – in fact, in many cases it is visitors to Greece from abroad who are leading this renaissance.
"I also noticed the change in the course of retsina" comments the acclaimed director. "Until now I thought it was forgotten in the time wardrobe of our younger years, but I see more and more groups pairing their food with retsina. As a professional pervert, I like to observe people in their various moments – restaurants and cafes are where I 'enjoy' being indiscreet. I think tourists are the ones who particularly prefer it. They like that it's something local, something they can't possibly try in their own country, and I imagine they find that very charming. I remember last summer, when a group of Germans at the next table ordered retsina, my friends and I were saying: 'Hey, tell me, how long has it been since we drunkretsina last time?' We ordered and, with the first sip, we traveled back to our childhood: summer evenings, taverns with pebbles and colored lamps, paper tablecloths, Dalaras somewhere in the background singing Kouyumtzis and us secretly sipping from our parents' retsina glasses. Nice memory".
THESSALONIKI, HERE.
If life is a stage, retsina is for some one of its props – one of those objects that "dress up" our moments, giving them depth, verisimilitude, aroma, and flavor. In which "scenes" of the urban "theatre" of Thessaloniki would Varvara Doumanidou include retsina?
"I observe workers on their break drinking retsina from the bottle, nice old guys with backgammon in coffee shops, students at the church of Agia Sophia with a bottle of retsina on the terrace, summer evening at the campsite, with a bottle buried in the sand" she answers. "Retsina is easy. It's there, it's accessible. If you run out of wine, you can also find it at a kiosk. I am happy that things, ideas, and situations, which were considered 'passed' and 'old fashioned' are coming back and taking their place in our lives again. And, of course, I mean things, ideas and situations that are made of good stuff. Which are made of love." And wine? Is it one of the ingredients that love is made of? "Wine is as old as man," says Varvara Doumanidou. "From Dionysus to Christ, its meaning is both symbolic and tangible. From the Wine of Bacchus (the unrestrained and distilled) to today's infinite varieties, wine remains a divine gift. As Prometheus revealed to us the gift of fire, so the Gods gave us the gift of absolute pleasure. All of us have opened a bottle in a breakup, a difficult day, a friend's celebration, a promotion, a birth. Wine is always there, to seal something. To fill us or to empty us. To remind us of or make us forget. We all walk the roads of wine, the roads that unite us with our divine self".
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