Christian Petzold
Christian Petzold is a German director, born in Hilden in 1960.
He fulfilled his military civil service at a film club before entering Berlin’s German Film and Television Academy. There he studied under director Harun Farocki, with whom he continued to collaborate on the screenplays of his future films. His first feature film Die innere Sicherheit [The State I Am In] (2000) questions personal memory and German history, both recurrent themes in his films. Next came Wolfsburg (2003), Gespenster [Ghosts] (2005), Yella (2007), and Jerichow (2009). He took his place as one of the leaders of the Berlin School, the new wave of German cinema. In 2012, Barbara introduced Petzold to international audiences and won him the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival. The filmmaker made two more films to complete his trilogy of “love stories set within oppressive systems”: Phoenix (2014) and Transit (2018). The Centre Pompidou paid tribute to Petzold in 2017 with a retrospective of his work.
The State I Am In (Die innere Sicherheit, 2000) – Wolfsburg (2003) – Gespenster (2005) – Yella (2007) – Jerichow (2009) – Barbara (2012) – Phoenix (2014) – Transit (2018) – Undine (2020) – Afire (2023)