In de greep van de Tango

Carel Kraayenhof is bandoneon player and the central character in the documentary embraced by the tango. "Some people like classical music, others find themselves in flamenco or punk, but for me it is the tango," Kraayenhof says. He lives in Amsterdam and is the moving spirit behind the Sexteto Canyengue, a Dutch tangosextet. In 1984 he was offered a bandoneon by a passing Argentinian. The instrument fascinated him instantly. "A bandoneon is like a human being. It is capable of crying and laughing. And the tango is like life itself." With the Sexteto Canyengue he is working on a tango repertoire in the style of Osvaldo Pugliese, the legendary Argentinean composer of tangos.
Invited by Pugliese, who in his turn became an admirer of Kraayenhof, the Dutch bandoneon player sets off for Buenos Aires. He meets people who not only become his friends but also share his passion for the tango. Back home Kraayenhof talks about the role that the tango and the bandoneon play in his life. In Buenos Aires and Montevideo he talks about his passion with Pugliese, Miguel Angel Olivera, and Roberto Alvarez.
Osvaldo Pugliese (1905) is still working as an orchestra leader and composer. In the thirties he set up a trade union for musicians. Since then he has been arrested regularly by the successive military regimes. When Pugliese's orchestra was forced to play without him because of his imprisonment, there always was a red carnation, a 'clavel rojo', on the keyboard of his piano. The tango that Kraayenhof dedicated to Pugliese is called "Clavel rojo". Miguel Angel Olivera is a poet. He was a political prisoner for thirteen years. In prison he secretly wrote most of his tango lyrics. Roberto Alvarez is one of the greatest bandoneon players in Argentina. Kraayenhof and Alvarez inspire each other in a 'conversation' between two bandoneons.