Maria Vassiliou
Acting
Biography
Maria Vassiliou (Greek: Μαρία Βασιλείου), also known as Maro Vassiliou (Μάρω Βασιλείου) or Mari Vassiliou (Μαρί Βασιλείου), was a Cypriot actress. Born on 16 September 1950, she became an amateur actress and moved from London to Ekali, Athens after she was selected for the role of the eponymous prostitute in Evdokia, a 1971 film directed by Greek director Alexis Damianos. For her performance in Evdokia, Vassiliou was awarded the prize for best actress in the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. She was subsequently typecast, in films such as Erotism and passion. She was cast in a main role, as protagonist Electra's sister Chrysotheme, in the landmark Theodoros Angelopoulos film The Travelling Players, in 1975. Vassiliou was diagnosed with cancer in Cyprus and went to London for treatment where she died in July 1989. She had kept her illness a secret and her whereabouts were unknown until nearly the end, sparking rumours that she had been killed in 1977 in a car crash.
Known For
A traveling theatre troupe tours the Greek countryside from 1939 to the early 1950s, staging “Golfo the Shepherdess”. As the years pass, its members endure persecution, betrayal, executions, and exile. Their personal stories become entangled with the country’s major historical events, in a seemingly endless cycle of violence and loss.
The Travelling Players
A prostitute (Evdokia) meets a sergeant (Yorgos). They fall in love and get married after a short love affair. Her profession, however, is a barrier for their relationship. They try to stay together and overcome their inner conflicts, but the social environment crushes them.
Evdokia
Two vagabond friends become lovers of the same beautiful girl, but when their third friend and leader comes out of prison, he has other plans for all of them.
She Knew No Other Way
Niovi is an unhappily married girl daydreaming constantly in her erotic fantasies. Her sister sets her up with a gigolo so she could black mail her and her husband but things go wrong.