Матти Гешоннек

Born in Potsdam, Germany in 1952, he is the son of actors Erwin Geschonneck and Hannelore Wüst. He was forced to break off his directing studies at the Eisenstein Institute in Moscow after four years because he refused to distance himself from the exiled Wolf Biermann. In 1978 he emigrated to West Germany and worked as an assistant for directors including Thomas Langhoff and Eberhard Fechner. After making his feature debut in 1992, he directed over 30 award-winning TV films. His tragicomedy Boxhagener Platz, with which he returned to the cinema in 2010, premiered in the Berlinale Special.