In the village of Vrontados, on the Greek island of Chios, are two churches situated about half a mile apart. Most of the time, they stand silently in their idyllic Mediterranean paradise, clanging sleepily on the hour, every hour until it’s time for everybody to put the wine down and go to bed again.
But on one day every year, two gangs of drunken rival villagers eschew peace for wanton, full-blown anarchy, letting fly tens of thousands of burning homemade rockets at each other’s churches in a slightly confusing and totally illegal ancient tradition they call ‘Rouketopolemos.’
The conflict means different things to different people. For some of the villagers, it is a ritual of near-sacred proportions, something bound up in their local birthright that they are willing to risk maiming themselves over. For the local authorities, it’s a lucrative pain in the ass, attracting tourists and the money that helps keep the locality afloat. For other villagers, it is simply a pain in the ass, or even worse, a costly pain in the ass, as they are forced to fund repairs themselves whenever rocket barrages set fire to their homes and property.
This year, VICE filmmaker Laurent Laughlin went along to Vrontados to see the villagers unleash their righteous, flaming fury firsthand. The result is our new film, Rocket War, which is streaming now at YouTube. It’s an exhilarating, poignant, and hilarious documentary, and you should watch it as soon as you’ve finished reading this interview with Laurent.
VICE: Hey Laurent, the film turned out great. How did you first find out about Rouketopolemos?
Laurent Laughlin: I was on a shoot for VICE some years ago, following around Greece’s best free-diving champions ahead of an international competition. During shooting we passed through Vrontados and they told me about this rather odd tradition they called ‘Rouketopolemos.’ I always thought it would be a fun visual story and it stayed in the back of my mind for years until I was able to shoot it recently.
Were you able to work out how it started? Going on the various explanations in the film, no one seems totally sure…
To be honest, not really. The history is fuzzy, as it is with a lot of stuff that happened under the Ottoman Empire. While the event is anchored in tradition—and that’s important to the Rocketeers—I think the most important thing for them these days isn’t really the rocket war’s origins but rather the sense of camaraderie that culminates in a big bang every Easter.
Don’t some of the other villagers get grumpy that tens of thousands of rockets get blasted at their homes every year?
Absolutely. Some people are furious; their houses get damaged and there’s no money to reimburse them for repairs, not to mention there’s a real risk of a major blaze igniting that could theoretically burn down houses. But for the village, it’s one of the biggest cash cows of the season: hotels and other businesses rake it in, so the local municipality is in a conundrum—they can’t condone citizens shooting thousands of rockets at each other’s parishes but don’t want to say ‘no’ to the cash.
The ones making the real sacrifice here, though, are Theodosis and his mates, the ones who make all the rockets. They’re all blue-collar guys and pay for everything out of their own pocket. They’d like to have more support but have no legitimacy, so they have to hide in the shadows to make the rockets and are basically broke every Easter. The worst part is they sometimes get arrested despite loads of other people benefiting from the rocket wars. They’re looking for donations if anyone wants to help out.
Do those locals hate the tourists that come to watch? I feel like I might.
No, I don’t think so. Again it’s a money thing, more tourists equals more cash… Although people meandering around with selfie sticks taking thousands of pictures of themselves is always irritating, and the airbnb thing is another issue: some people really hate this mass influx of digital nomads and tourists that become these out-of-place, semi-permanent residents.
How did the main guy, Theodosis, lose his thumb?
Actually he lost all five fingers. He basically tested whether or not a particular type of gun powder really could ignite by simply pushing down on the powder rather than lighting it. He tested it out and bang, no more fingers.
Finally, did you learn anything profound about the human condition while filming Rouketopolemos?
I’d say a couple of things. The first is how incredibly important it is to have a group of friends you can sit around and have a laugh with, in this crummy digital age we live in I feel like that’s something harder and harder to come by. Theodosis and his friends are lucky in that sense, it feels like they live in a bygone era and I’m envious. The other thing is a bit silly but it definitely crossed my mind… with all these wars killing thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people, I wish people could engage in this kind of fun to blow off steam rather than murder each other. It’s a bit hippy-dippy but yeah… Also, I think we need less bureaucracy in general, bending the rules like they do in Vrontados allows for interesting things to happen.
Not murdering each other relentlessly doesn’t sound so ‘hippy-dippy’ to me. Thanks, Laurent.
Watch ROCKET WAR now at our YouTube channel.
The post Watch Greek Villagers Fire Thousands of Rockets at Each Other appeared first on VICE.
The post Watch Greek Villagers Fire Thousands of Rockets at Each Other appeared first on VICE.
