Acting
Dec 31, 1914
Athens, Greece
Dora Volanaki
Acting
Biography
Dora Volanaki (Greek: Ντόρα Βολανάκη) was born in 1915 in Athens and studied at the Drama School of the National Theatre as well as at the French Academy and the British Institute. She also translated aesthetic essays (My Life in Art, Stanislavski) and plays. She adapted plays for the radio. She made her debut in the theatre in 1933 and in 1935 became a member of the Greek Theatre Association. From 1943 until the end of the Occupation, she was a key figure in the State Theatre of Thessaloniki. Later, for several years, she collaborated with the troupe of her teacher, Dimitris Rontiris, and with many troupes of well-known leading actors. Dora Volanaki passed away at the age of 83, on May 12, 1998.
Feature Films (17)
An old communist returning to Greece after 32 years in the Soviet Union is disillusioned with the state of things.
Voyage to Cythera
A Greek immigrant and his son return to Greece, where they reunite with mother and brother and re-discover their heritage and each other. Cross-cultural misunderstandings abound.
Silent Rebellion
A Nazi officer arrives in occupied Athens in 1941 and falls in love with a Jewish girl, unaware of her true identity.
Treason
An exiled filmmaker finally returns to his home country where former mysteries and afflictions of his early life come back to haunt him once more.
Ulysses' Gaze
Giannis is a subversive young man who rebels against any social institution or authority. Unemployed by conviction, he cohabits with his German friend Ilze, who supports him, helps his arrogant uncle , a fallen aristocrat, with his drug smuggling, and becomes friends with a Pontian Turk, Mustapha. The latter has entered Greece illegally and follows Giannis to Athens, hoping to find his Greek grandmother, who is none other than Giannis' grandmother as well. Mustapha steals the hearty of Ilze, whom he entertains with tales of his exploits, but the uncle turns them over to the police, and so they are truly in a tight squeeze. They get out of doing time, despite it all, and leave for Turkey, but they stray into Albania, where they are arrested and sentenced to manual labor.
Two Turkish Eggs
Taxidi Tou Melitos is about the fear that most elderly people experience: approaching death. Leon (Stavros Xenides) and Zaharoula (Betty Livanou) are heading out for their annual vacation at a summer resort. Instead of their usual carefree anticipation, their mood is subdued because their daughter has just married and is off on her honeymoon. Life is lonely without her and the couple cannot avoid the realization that death is not that far away for them. Once at the resort, Leon tries to overcome this nagging fear by taking a wild plunge in the ocean, naked, as he and Zaharoula are out walking on the beach. Taken up in the spirit of the moment, she joins him among the waves. The results, however, are not what they expected.
Honeymoon
After having an accident Nassos is brought into a hospital where he lies in coma without regaining his consciousness. All his friends visit him and each of them remembers the most important moments of their friendships.
120 Decibels
An erotic film that is imbued with many influences from Italian realist cinema, and now and then it adopts a Jean-Luc Godard-like style.
Erotic Moments
Alexander is a young man who dies of leukemia at the age of twenty-six. At the hospital, his mother, his wife, and his friends stand by his side. Trying to react to the grim idea of his impending death, he asks his wife to make love to him. His memories take him back to his early adolescence and his first sexual encounter in a brothel.
