Frieda Liappa was born in Messini in 1948. In 1965 she was admitted to the School of Philosophy of Athens. As a university student, she was politically active and took part in the editorial team of the “Argo” magazine. In 1967 she joined illegal political action against the totalitarian regime of the Colonels. The following year she was arrested and sentenced to 6 years in prison. Her sentence induced her expulsion from the university. In 1972, she worked as a script supervisor in Pantelis Voulgaris’ film “The Matchmaking of Anna”, and she shot her first short film, “40 Days Later”. The following year she moved to London, where she studied at the London Film School. She travelled to Paris, Berlin, and Lisbon during her studies, where she witnessed the Carnation Revolution. In 1974, she returned to Greece and continued her studies at Athens University. She joined the editorial committee of the “Contemporary Cinematography” magazine for two years. In 1977, she directed the TV show “Paraskinio” (Backstage). At the same time, she started working for “Anti” and “Contemporary Cinematography” magazines as a film critic until 1980. In 1981, she directed her first feature-length film, “Love Wanders in the Night”. In 1982, she created for Greek television two films about Greek poets Kostas Karyotakis and Maria Polydouri. In 1985, she published her first poetry collection. “The Years of the Big Heat” (1991) was her last film before the scandal that broke out in 1992; the cinematography consultant of the Ministry of Culture demanded that her film not be eligible for the state film awards as there had been accusations of child abuse while filming it. Significant figures in the cultural sector supported Liappa during this litigation, such as Melina Mercouri, Theodoros Angelopoulos, Jules Dassin, Thanos Mikroutsikos, and Nikos Koundouros. In 1993, she was acquitted of the charges. After that, she started writing the screenplay for “Dreams and reality of Margaret”, which she started filming, but never finished as, in 1994, she passed away.

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