Background
Telémachos Alexiou was born in Chalkida, Evvoia, Greece. He is the son of Pavlina Alexiou, a local real estate agent, and Konstantinos Alexiou, a math professor
Telémachos Alexiou was born in Chalkida, Evvoia, Greece. He is the son of Pavlina Alexiou, a local real estate agent, and Konstantinos Alexiou, a math professor
At the age of seventeen Alexiou moved to London, United Kingdom, to study Communications & Visual Culture and later to Berlin, Germany, where he studied film theory and started working as a filmmaker and artist.
As a child he trained as a ballroom dancer. 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, Alexiou attracted international attention with his experimental video The Dream Of Norma, starring Vaginal Davis, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival.
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, Los Angeles Outfest et al.
In 2011, the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art in Berlin 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 by Sophocles.
The film was produced by the legendary Berlin film producer Jürgen Brüning. lieutenant premiered at the Mumbai International
Film Festival in October of the same year and had its European premiere at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival a month later.
Alexiou identifies as gay and describes his films as partly autobiographical. Telémachos Alexiou is also a polyglot. He currently speaks nine languages fluently and understands a dozen more.