Olympia is a feature length documentary about the life of Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck).
It tells a poignant story of a woman finding her own voice on her own terms to assert a gigantic creative force into
the world. Rebelling against her old world panty-sniffing suspicious Greek mother to assert her strong sexual drive, fighting the feeling she was “too ethnic” amid the Boston Brahmin at BU, and starting her own theatre company in New Jersey instead of waiting for the phone to ring, Olympia Dukakis models how to live life with blazing courage.
Throughout an engrossing story that seamlessly blends past and present, she opens her heart and exposes her truest self to director Harry Mavromichalis’ unobtrusive camera.
Exhibiting both candor and vulnerability, we see her deal with age, grief and sexuality while opening up about her past struggles with depression, suicide and drug addiction.
This intimate portrait of a working class professional, a scholar actor of intuitive power, and a woman beloved around the world, culminates on the steps of the Dukakis’ humble ancestral home in Lesbos, Greece. Through her brutal honesty and sincerity, Olympia compels us to confront our own shortcomings and differences by letting go, and moving forward with defiant conviction.
