Brasileirinho

In his musical documentary Brasileirinho, Mika Kaurismäki shows the history and the vitality of the Choro, the first genuinely Brazilian urban music. The Choro was created around 1870 when new music groups in Rio de Janeiro started playing European music with Afro-Brazilian rhythms just for fun. As a result, it is credited as being the first musical expression of Brazil’s melting pot and as having a prominent place in the development of Brazil’s cultural identity After being overshadowed by the Samba in the 1920s and later by the Bossa Nova, the Choro is now livelier than ever before in the bars and concert halls

Brasileirinho focuses on the combo “Trio Madeira Brasil” with its outstanding musicians Marcello Gonçalves (guitar), Zé Paulo Becker (guitar) and Ronaldo Souza (mandolin). During a “Roda de Choro”, the traditional Brazilian jam session, the trio launches a concert project. Mika Kaurismäki accompanies the musicians of the “Trio Madeira Brasil” and other Choro musicians during rehearsals, performances and at home. During these sessions, some of the most interesting Choro musicians play and remember key events in the history of this Brazilian urban music