Tonia Marketaki is one of the most influential female directors of her generation. She was born in 1942 in Piraeus. She received her formal film training at IDHEC in Paris, and upon her return to Greece, she worked as a film critic in various newspapers from 1963 until 1967. 

When she was in Paris, women were not typically encouraged to study filmmaking. That’s why she ended up studying camera operation and cinematic photography. Theodoros Angelopoulos, Alexis Grivas, Stavros Konstantarakos, Nikos Panagiotopoulos and Lambros Liaropoulos were some of her classmates at IDHEC. Marketaki, along with these directors, would later comprise the group of the New Greek Cinema.

Tonia Marketaki was opposed to the Greek military junta. She was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison, but she escaped to Paris, London, and Algiers, where she produced films for farmers (1969-1971). When the Colonels' Regime ended, she returned to Greece, where she worked as an art editor and film critic in newspapers and magazines. She soon developed a relationship with “Contemporary Cinema” magazine. She was very active politically, and, soon after its formation, she joined the Greek Directors Guild forces. 

She directed three feature-length films. For “John the Violent”, considered by many a milestone in modern Greek cinema, she gained the best director and best screenplay awards at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. Marketaki found it challenging to fund her films; that was why her second film remained unfinished. She created “The Price of Love” (1984) and “Crystal Nights” (1992). She also directed the TV series “To Lemonodasos”, an adaptation of a novel by Kosmas Politis.

In 1980 she directed for the National Theatre of Northern Greece, written by renowned playwrights.

She suddenly passed away on July 26, 1994, before turning 52.

FERRIS COSTAS

FRIEDA LIAPPA