The Triumph of Tragedy is the story of Vakkina and her struggle to achieve her dreams to be a painter and to own her own business.
Following her from Greece to Melbourne in 1956, The Triumph of Tragedy is the story of one woman’s struggle to overcome whatever fate throws at her, but also paints a picture of what life was like for migrant women in that period.
Vakkina battles to establish her own garment manufacturing business and to succeed despite the social and moral restrictions placed on young Greek women.
Just when she seems to have triumphed, fate intervenes and she loses her husband, Jimmy. Succumbing to community pressure she remarries and she sees everything that she has achieved destroyed. But she battles on to survive, however hard life may be.