Marika Kallamata, actress, “Artist of Merit” was born in Fier. In 1950, she graduated from the Artistic High School “Jordan Misja” and that same year she started working at the People’s Theater. Played a number of supporting and episodic roles, reprising original characters. She stood out with the role of the maid in Goldoni’s comedy “Mirandolina“, but the role that made her very popular was that of Aspasia in the comedy “Karnavalet e Korçës” (“The carnavals of Korçë”) by Spiro Çomora, in 1964. With her acting, she ridiculed superstition, ignorance and snobbery of provincial women, thanks to a marking plastic, expressive acting mask, figurative gesture, “male” voice mime and many meaningful and complementary details, which helped in the realization of a unique character. Marika Kallamata was an actress of characters, mostly of the comic side and with grotesque colors; knew how to use plastic elements with high effectiveness, used dialectal speech, even the slang of street conversation; it created interesting possibilities, meaningful details, caused a unique mood as a result of adapting to the circumstance where and when it was acted. In the cinematography, she played 14 roles, small and secondary, also these roles-characters, starting first with the film “Fëmijët e saj” (“Her children”), 1957 and continuing with others such as “Dollia e dasmës time” (“The toast of my wedding”) in the role of Xhiko, “Kur hidheshin themelet” (“When the foundations were laid”) in the role of Hava, “Ëndërr për një karrige” (“Dream for a chair”) in the role of Ishe, “Një baba tepër” (“One too many fathers”) in the role of Filomena, etc. Marika Kallamata became very well-known and loved, with the warm, seductive, suggestive way of telling stories, having one of the widest audiences, especially with the role of the grandmother in the fairy-tale show for children on Albanian Television. She passed away in Tirana, in 2019. (In the photo: Marika Kallamata)
Text: Josif Papagjoni
Photo: © https://www.afp.al/news/2017/06/flet-artistja-e-merituar-marika-kallamata-jeten-artistike-e-fillova-ne-teater-dhe-aty-e-mbylla-30599
Graphic processing: AHCF
