Telémachos Alexiou is a Greek-German filmmaker and visual artist.

Early life

Telémachos Alexiou was born in

Chalkida Chalcis (; Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: , ), also called Chalkida or Halkida (Modern Greek: , ), is the chief city of the island of Euboea or Evia in Greece, situated on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point. The name is preserved from ...

, Evvoia, Greece. He is the son of Pavlina Alexiou, a local real estate agent, and Konstantinos Alexiou, a math professor. As a child he trained as a ballroom dancer. By the age of sixteen he had won all ballroom dance national titles. At the age of seventeen Alexiou moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, UK, to study Communications & Visual Culture and later to

Berlin, Germany Berlin ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of ...

, where he studied film theory and started working as a filmmaker and artist.

Career

In 2009, Alexiou directed his first medium-length experimental film, ''The Logic Of The Cat'', which had a cinema release only two years later. In 2010, he attracted international attention with his experimental video ''The Dream Of Norma'', starring

Vaginal Davis Vaginal Davis (born in Los Angeles, California) is an American performer, painter, independent curator, composer, film-maker and writer. Born intersex and raised in South Central, Los Angeles, Davis gained notoriety in New York during the 1980s ...

, which premiered at the

Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

. After ''The Dream Of Norma'', Alexiou directed multiple short and medium-length films and video works, including the film ''Venus In The Garden'', which have been presented in various film festivals and art spaces around the world such as Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin and LA Outfest. In 2011, the in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, Germany, dedicated a mini-retrospective to his films and started archiving his work. In 2014, Telémachos Alexiou finished his first feature film, ''Queen Antigone'' (''Vasilissa Antigoni''), a reconfiguration of the ancient tragedy

Antigone ANTIGONE (Algorithms for coNTinuous / Integer Global Optimization of Nonlinear Equations), is a deterministic global optimization solver for general Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs (MINLP). History ANTIGONE is an evolution of GloMIQO, a global ...

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

. The film was produced by the legendary Berlin film producer Jürgen Brüning. It premiered at the

Mumbai Film Festival The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) is a public trust that organises the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in the city of Mumbai, India. Priyanka Chopra, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is the chairperson of the trust while Shivendra Singh Dungarpur serves ...

in October of the same year and had its European premiere at the

Thessaloniki International Film Festival The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) is a film festival held every November in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. It features internationa ...

a month later.

Personal life

Alexiou identifies as gay and describes his films as partly autobiographical.

Languages

Telémachos Alexiou is also a polyglot. He currently speaks nine languages fluently and understands a dozen more.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexiou, Telemachos Greek artists 1992 births Living people Greek emigrants to Germany People from Chalcis