
Olia Lazaridou
Biography
Olia Lazaridou (Athens, 13 March 1954) is a Greek actress and director. Her father was a radio producer and advertiser. She studied acting at the Drama School of the Art Theatre where she performed, as an actress, in tragedies and in the play Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni, directed by Giorgos Lazanis. In 1986 she went to France where she attended classes at the school of Antoine Vitez. Lazaridou became known to the general public through her frequent film appearances in the 1980s. Her first film appearance was in a small role in Nikos Koundouros' film 1922 in 1978. She has starred in a total of 17 films and has twice won the Best Actress award at the Thessaloniki Greek Film Festival for the films The Stigma in 1982 and Terirem in 1987 while in the same year she also won the Best Supporting Actress award for the film Archangel of Passion. In 2005 she was awarded for her entire body of work. The 46th Thessaloniki Film Festival featured special screenings in her honor of the films The Rags Still Sing by Nikos Nikolaidis, Invincible Lovers by Stavros Tsiolis, The Stigma by Pavlos Tassios, and The Nostalgist by Eleni Alexandraki. Lazaridou herself maintains an ambivalent attitude towards her film appearances. (Source: Wikipedia)
Known For & Full Filmography21 Titles

Movie - 1982, 2h 15m • as Eleni
A young couple (Antonis Kafetzopoulos and Olia Lazaridou) have a baby affected with the Down Syndrome. In order to avoid the difficulties entailed in bringing a child that will never live a normal life, they decided to put an end to its life.

Movie - 1985, 2h 15m • as Anna
An actor's troupe puts up a variety show.

Movie - 2011, 2h 15m • as Vicky
Marianna returns to Greece on a whim to surprise her boyfriend, secretly plotting to stay with him forever, while Nikos is using the carnival as an excuse to confess his love to his unsuspecting boss. Eugenia hesitates to tell her daughter about her secret romance with the much younger carnival crew leader, while Ilias has no qualms about begging his estranged wife to come home. Four couples, each one desperately trying to either rescue or escape their relationship, lose themselves in the intoxicating atmosphere of the carnival before they finally reveal their true colors, hidden behind the masks. In the midst of carnival madness, four duets are staking their claim on their own personal Paradise…

Movie - 1987, 2h 15m • as Katerina
Arhangelos tou pathous: In anticipation of hearing a single word by midnight on his coming birthday, a self-destructive symphonic composer makes an out of bounds and dangerous bet on himself.

Movie - 2005, 2h 15m • as Άννα
Anna, married to a husband much older than she, longs to see her island, which is right across the island she lives. She has never visited it again since her marriage. Thus, she persuades Mathio, a young shepherd to take her there with a 'borrowed' boat. He accepts, hoping for a romantic adventure. However, all she wants is to see her island. Her husband follows her ...

Movie - 1986, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A writer goes to his hometown, looking for the girl he was in love,when he was young.

Movie - 1988, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Twelve-year-old Vasilis escapes the orphanage, wanders a while in the capital and then takes the train for his hometown, Tripolis. As he wanders through the mountains of Arcadia, he meets a girl whose car has broken down. They become friends and spend the summer together, until Vasilis returns to his grandmother's house, which he finds abandoned and in ruin. The girl disappears, and Vasilis, deserted and alone, takes the road to Tripolis, where, in order to make ends meet, he performs odd jobs. On the day celebrating his patron saint, however, he abandons the city and takes the road back to his village.

Drama Series - 2000, 16 episodes • as Στέλλα
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.

Drama Series - 1997, 16 episodes • as Όλγα Μαρκάκη
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.

Drama Series - 1995, 16 episodes • as Φλώρα
An outstanding performance featuring brilliant storytelling, high stakes drama, and unforgettable character arcs.

Movie - 1979, 2h 15m • as Vera
Five friends (representatives of the Fifties generation) now in their forties, reunite after years of silence: one arrives from jail, where he has been entering and exiting for years; the other comes from a series of 'accidental' murders; another leaves his wife and kids; the fourth is a wonderer; and the last, the sole female, emerges from a lunatic asylum where she's been hiding for years... These outcasts—tortured from barren love affairs, wounded from the deaths of their beloved and betrayed by the politics of their times—hopelessly try to reconstruct the gang of their puberty, but the revolution is lost... Now, each in their own way, will progress into a journey of death, thus opening a new chapter in the history of their generation.

Movie - 1996, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
The universe is a unified and indivisible entity. There are nο independent parts. There is just the WHOLE, the ΟΝΕ. One of the laws that forms its framework is that of compensation. If some occurrence or some action οn some organizational level of the universe disrupts the order, then compensatory mechanisms are activated that re-establish the balance. The direction in which our civilization appears to be headed threatens to disrupt the balance in this corner of the universe. The Law is activated in the form of «Pressures» οn a group of scientists that endanger not only their minds but even their very lives…

Movie - 2022, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A young boy slowly drifts into illness. As sight + sound begin to dwindle, his love for life does not…

Movie - 1989, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
In this highly stylized and enigmatic story, Olga uses her cello case as a weapons cache. When she isn’t using her sharpshooting skills to knock off eminent Arab visitors to Athens, she vamps around lightly clad on the terrace of her penthouse, entertaining one man after another.

Movie - 1987, 2h 15m • as Maria Kavvadia
The mute wife (Olia Lazaridou) of a shadow-theater player (Antonis Kafetzopoulos) is suffering from cancer. An old woman, guided by her visions, discovers a Byzantine religious icon buried in a field. Her nephew sells the find to a thief, who then murders the old woman, without knowing that she had told the village priest about the holy icon she found. Two priests arrive in the village together with the puppeteer and his ailing wife, and there the wife sees a vision of the icon and where it was located in the field, which leads to the discovery of the bones of a saint. The wife sleeps on the spot where the holy relics were discovered and, upon awaking the following morning, regains her speech.

Movie - 2022, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Famous Greek artists Yannis Aggelakas and Olia Lazaridou read excerpts from the book A Journal of Two Voyages by Nikos Kazantzakis, while director Aris Chatzistefanou juxtaposes the narration with footage from modern Japan, combined with manga, anime, and video games. An ode to the last journey of the author that shaped his worldview and costed him his life.

Movie - 1991, 2h 15m • as Elsa
A housewife putting her husbant's cheese in a mouse trap and a razor blade in her son's food.

Movie - 1978, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Based on the book by Ilias Venezis "The Number 31328", the film by Nikos Koundouros unfolds through the personal tragedies of three characters, the Asia Minor Disaster and the agonizing travails of the Asia Minor Greeks who had been arrested and led to death by Kemal's troops and armed groups of Muslims. The wife of a merchant, a teacher and a seventeen-year old boy try to survive, following the column of prisoners into the depths of Asia Minor.

Movie - 1980, 2h 15m • as Roula
The true story of Nikos Koemtzis, a man who stabbed three men to death in 1973 Athens for disrespecting his brother Demos' zeibekiko, a traditional Greek dance.

Movie - 2002, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Theophilus Palios, owns a small traditional publishing house. He man madly falls in love with Sia, that is doing vocals on the show of a known singer. Sia maintains her living by the "generosity" of old fans. In the face of Theophilus, Sia will experience true love, though it continues to accept the offers of numerous admirers. Theophilus mad by jealousy, is lead to huge wastages and ultimately to economic collapse. He ends up entangled in a case of robbery and murder. Sia, in a guilt and self-sacrifice crisis, becomes mistress of the investigating policeman in exchange for his silence. This creates an odd triangle ..

Movie - 2011, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A Documentary about Nikos Nikolaidis' work. Nikos Nikolaidis was an acclaimed film director and author from Greece. He is famous for creating controversial characters in his films that have a rebellious attitude towards the social and political status quo. He illustrates a dark and pessimistic present and future, but also providing ambiguous hope for the end when his heroes find their escape in death. His films are shocking and contentious, raising questions during times when political visions start to fade away. His filming was poetic, dynamic and aesthetically beautiful in order to present situations on edge and elicit his audience's feelings. The aim of this project is to transfer his dynamics in a documentary that will convey some of his messages and create a platform for exchanging opinions among filmmakers from all over the world, in an effort to decipher his universe and his symbols as reflections of his unique and rare personality.