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● Movie Guide · Last updated May 18, 2026

Maria: Plot, Cast, Ending & Where to Watch

2024 · Germany · History, Drama, Music · 2h 03m · English

Maria is a 2024 Germany history film directed by Pablo Larraín. This guide covers the plot, full cast, an overview of the ending, where to watch, and similar films you might want next.

Read Ending Explained → Movies Like Maria Where to Watch
HistoryDramaEditorial pick
Original Title
Maria
Director
Pablo Larraín
Writers
Steven Knight
Country
Germany
Runtime
2h 03m
Release
Nov 27, 2024
§ 01 Plot · 6 min read

Maria Plot Summary

Maria is a 2024 biographical psychological drama film directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Steven Knight. It is an international co-production between Italy, Chile, Germany and the United States. The film stars Angelina Jolie as opera singer Maria Callas, and follows the week before her death in 1977 Paris, as she reflects on her life and career. It also stars Pierfrancesco Favino, Alba Rohrwacher, Haluk Bilginer, Stephen Ashfield, Valeria Golino, and Kodi Smit-McPhee in supporting roles. It is the third film in Larraín's trilogy of iconic 20th-century women, following Jackie (2016), and Spencer (2021).

● Quick takeaway

Maria (2024) is a Germany history film, directed by Pablo Larraín, running 123 minutes. Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life. Stars Angelina Jolie and Pierfrancesco Favino. Critical reception: IMDb 6.4/10, Rotten Tomatoes 75%, Metacritic 63/100. This guide covers the plot, full cast, ending explanation, and where to watch Maria.

§ 02 Cast · 6 roles

Cast and Characters

Angelina Jolie headshot
Angelina Jolie
as Maria Callas
Jolie carries the film as Callas in her last week, and the casting reads as the trilogy's most physically demanding role to date: she trained for seven months with vocal coach Eric Vetro, sang in costume on every set, and is mixed in under Callas's own recordings at varying levels across the performance scenes. The performance has to register both the diva and the patient — the woman who once filled La Scala, and the woman whose body is now too tired to leave her seventh-arrondissement apartment.
Pierfrancesco Favino headshot
Pierfrancesco Favino
as Ferruccio
Favino plays Ferruccio Mezzadri, Callas's real-life butler and the man who, in the historical record, found her body in the apartment on the morning of 16 September 1977. The role is the film's quiet anchor: he manages the medication schedule, screens the visitors, drives her to the café, and Favino plays him as a man who has loved his employer for two decades without ever quite saying it, and who is now watching the household end.
Alba Rohrwacher headshot
Alba Rohrwacher
as Bruna
Rohrwacher plays the housekeeper Bruna Lupoli as the household's second steady presence — the woman who has been ironing Callas's clothes since the Onassis years, who manages the meals Callas no longer eats, and who carries the weight of knowing more about her employer's health than Callas wants admitted. Rohrwacher gives the role a precisely calibrated working-class warmth that resists either melodrama or the period-film domestic-servant template.
Haluk Bilginer headshot
Haluk Bilginer
as Aristotle Onassis
The Turkish character actor Bilginer plays the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis across the film's memory strand — from the 1959 Christina yacht cruise that began the affair to the 1968 wedding to Jacqueline Kennedy that ended Callas's life in his orbit. The performance refuses both the great-lover register and the cartoon-tycoon register; Bilginer plays Onassis as a man whose appetite for Callas is real and whose loyalty to her is contingent on the geopolitics he is also chasing.
Kodi Smit-McPhee headshot
Kodi Smit-McPhee
as Mandrax
Smit-McPhee plays a young television journalist named Mandrax — sharing his name with the barbiturate Callas was prescribed, and signposted by the film as either a hallucination she is staging for herself or a real visitor she is rewriting. The performance leans into the structural ambiguity: he asks the questions she wants to answer, prompts the memory cues the film needs, and Smit-McPhee gives him a quiet present-tense stillness that lets the audience read him either way.
Stephen Ashfield headshot
Stephen Ashfield
as Jeffrey Tate
Ashfield plays the British conductor Jeffrey Tate, with whom Callas attempts to rehearse in the apartment's drawing room across the film's middle section. Their scenes together are some of Maria's most painful: Tate has come to coach her in good faith, Callas is testing what is left of her voice without quite admitting to either of them how much is gone, and Ashfield calibrates the role to register concern without ever shifting register into pity.
§ 03 · Spoiler Zone · Read with care

Ending Overview

How does Maria end? Our spoiler-aware breakdown walks through the final act beat by beat — including the choices, motivations, and ambiguous final shot that viewers most often debate.

Read full Ending Explained →
§ 04 Watch · Updated May 18

Where to Watch Maria

Availability may vary by region and change over time.

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§ 06

Frequently Asked

What is Maria about?

Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.

Where can I watch Maria?

See the Where to Watch section below for the current streaming, rental, and purchase options in your region.