The great city of Buenos Aires is still reeling from the economic crisis, but – paradoxically – out of the daily suffering of the porteños one of the strongest tango revivals ever has risen. On the one hand, Jana Bokova`s Tango Salon – La Confiteria Ideal can be seen as a Buenos Aires-set Buena Vista Social Club, full of great music and dance played out against the backdrop of the legendary Confiteria Ideal, one of the oldest of Buenos Aires` tango halls. On the other it is easy to see the tango as a defiant political act, a refusal to lie down and die in the face of the country`s continued poverty. Bokova celebrates the lives of the tangueros and tangueras – old milongueros, local dancers, tango teachers, foreigners and tango stars aged from 20 to 80 – all of whom share their tango stories of love, family, nationality etc., and shows how the political and the aesthetic are inextricably interwoven.
>Argentina / United Kingdom 2004, 70´, English subtitles
Followed by Q&A with director Jana Bokova and former BBC Head of Music and Arts programmes Leslie Megahey
