Hanna Shygulla
Hanna Schygulla was born at the border between Germany and Poland.
She then grew up as a child of refugees from the east in Bavaria. In 1967 she had almost finished her studies in philology when her female friend invited her to join a performing art school in Munich. There she met a young actor: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. They didn’t finish school, but founded their own theatre: the Anti Theatre , began filming, and became one of the most famous and productive couples in German cinematography (EFFIE BRIEST;THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT, LILI MARLEEN and many others).
Apart from Fassbinder Schygulla was also working with other directors like Andrej Wajda (A LOVE IN GERMANY), Wim Wenders (THE WRONG MOVEMENT),Volker Schlöndorff (CIRCLE OF DECEIT), Margarethe von Trotta (SHEER MADNESS), Jean-Luc Godard (PASSION), Ettore Scola (IL MONDO NUOVO) and Marco Ferreri (THE STORY OF PIERA – Best Actress in Cannes 1983 - THE FUTURE IS WOMAN).
She also made experimental films of her own. Some of them are now part of the film collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
As life is stronger than arts, Hanna Schygulla interrupted her career once to care for her mother and a second time for her father. During those years she wrote and performed as well as a singer several one-woman shows.
On her sixtieth birthday appeared the second book written on her and partly by her.
After having participated in the work of Kenneth Branagh(DEAD AGAIN) and Amos Gitai (PROMISED LAND) and Bela Tarr(WERKMEISTERS HARMONIES) she then joins young German filmmakers like Till Franzen (DIE BLAUE GRENZE), Hans Steinbichler (WINTERREISE) and Fatih Akin (THE EDGE OF HEAVEN / AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE).
During the Berlin Filmfestival 2010 she received her first Lifetime award, the golden Bear.