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Aulona Lupa, successful Albanian-Greek artist: theater and cinema actress, director and teacher in Athens

2026-05-12 17:29:47Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
Aulona Lupa, successful Albanian-Greek artist: theater and cinema actress, director and teacher in Athens

Aulona Lupa was 5 years old when her family immigrated to Greece. Now the successful Albanian-Greek artist has begun to reap the fruits of her great sacrifices and is a theater and film actress, director and teacher in Athens.

When you ask Aulona if she remembers the moment she realized she wanted to become an actress and dedicate herself to acting, she thinks for a moment and answers with a slight smile: "No..."

Then he tries to delve into his memory and bring back memories of that time. "I don't know if over the years I have reconstructed this memory to give a starting point for everything. But I remember very clearly the first film I saw in the cinema. It was 'Amélie'. We had gone with the class and the film immediately attracted me. I believe that is where my love for cinema was born."

The day that changed everything

However, she remembers the day she was accepted to the acting school in Athens quite clearly. "I remember very clearly the day I found out that I had been accepted to the Acting School. I had taken the exams together with a friend and we received the news that we had both been accepted in the same year. I felt an extraordinary happiness, a feeling that, to be honest, I have not experienced many times in my life. And also a great optimism that, from that moment on, everything would change, that things would be different. And I think they really did.

Aulona Lupa, successful Albanian-Greek artist: theater and cinema actress,
Aulona Lupa: "I don't feel connected only to Albanian immigrants. I feel connected to migrants in general, because I believe we share common challenges and experiences."

The change that Aulona talks about was not only professional, but also personal. It was related to her identity and her name.

During the announcement of the names of the candidates accepted to the Athens Conservatory, she says, they called out my name Aulona Lupa from the list and I raised my hand and said 'here', without correcting the name, she recalls. She further explains: "until that moment I introduced myself as Maria Lupa. Maria is my baptismal name, which I took after I came to Greece. Throughout my childhood, I had somehow hidden the name Aulona and it had taken a back seat. But when I heard my real name at the conservatory, something inside me suddenly felt at peace. And from that day on I returned to my first name, my Albanian name. I believe that was the moment when I realized that this new beginning would bring me closer to myself, my identity and my origins.

Between two identities

However, Aulona does not define herself through a single national identity. "I do not feel only Greek or only Albanian. I feel both Greek and Albanian, but at the same time neither completely. I feel more like a migrant, a proud migrant. I feel that this is the community to which I belong. I do not feel connected only to Albanian immigrants. I feel connected to migrants in general, because I believe that we share common challenges and experiences."

Aulona Lupa, successful Albanian-Greek artist: theater and cinema actress,
For Aulona, ??migration is not only part of her biography, but also an experience and perspective that has directly influenced her artistic work.

For Aulona, ??migration is not only part of her biography, but also an experience and perspective that has directly influenced her artistic work.

"At the beginning of my artistic journey, this duality was an area of ??exploration to understand my experiences and feelings related to migration, because there were many things buried for years due to the deep shame that often accompanies migration. Over time, migration became a central part of my artistic identity, and now I think it has become a very central part of this identity. It is probably the largest piece of the mosaic of my artistic identity.

Acting and teaching

In recent years, teaching has also become part of her professional life. It all started when she was looking for a course in film acting and realized that there was no program that met her needs. For this reason, she decided to create one herself and founded the "Acting on Camera" seminar, the first of its kind in Greece.

She says that working with well-known figures of Greek cinema while organizing the course was a very valuable experience. "In a way, it feels like I've done an unofficial master's through this collaboration," she says.

Aulona says that teaching gave her a distance and perspective that she often lacked as an actress and has also changed the way she sees acting. "As a teacher, you understand how sensitive and fragile actors are. Acting requires you to constantly expose yourself. Your instrument, your means of expression is not something external, but you yourself: your body, your voice, and your emotional life. And success or failure does not only affect the work, but the person themselves.

Through working with students, she says she now has a greater understanding of the emotional difficulties that accompany the profession, and with her great passion for acting, she is also inspiring her drama students.

"Aulona is very passionate about what she does. She loves this job and she conveys her passion from the first second. She has freed us from the complex of making mistakes and it is really very pleasant to work with her." - says Nikos Selevakos, one of Aulona's students

Aulona Lupa, successful Albanian-Greek artist: theater and cinema actress,
In 2025, Aulona also made her first short film.

From actress to producer

Among the many roles she has played as an actress, Aulona singles out that of Stella, in the film "Hold onto Me" by director Myrsini Aristidou, which was presented this year at the Sundance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in the US. "The project of this film was special for me, because I am a close friend of Myrsini, and I have followed the film since the early stages of development. So the experience was much more personal than it would have been if it had been a film where I simply participated as an actress."

In 2025, Aulona also made her first short film. The idea began as a desire to create a role for herself, but then the project took a different direction. The story was built from elements and fragments of personal experiences, including an accident that her grandson had experienced as a child. "Thus a new story was born, built as a mosaic of experiences," she says of the film, which is currently in post-production.

What are you proud of?

When asked what she feels most proud of so far, Aulona thinks for a moment and answers: "I think that today I am proud of myself, especially because I have stopped constantly looking for reasons to be proud."

For Aulona, ??pride is no longer tied to specific achievements, but to a sense of balance between personal and work life. Experiences of migration, new beginnings, and living among different cultures have influenced the way she views life and her career.

And perhaps this is what defines Aulona the most: not a single moment of success, but a continuous process of development and personal search, somewhere between Aulona and Maria, between places, between roles, between security and opportunities./ DW

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