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 Helma Sanders-Brahams was born November 20th, 1940 in Emden, East Frisia, as Helma Sanders. She studied drama, German and English literature at the University of Cologne while working as a TV announcer. She added the Brahams to her name to distinguish herself from Helke Sander.
After her first productions, short contributions to magazine-style TV shows and being a trainee with Pier Paolo Passolini, she released her first movie, “Angelika Urban, Verkäuferin, verlobt” (Angelika Urban, salesperson, engaged) at the Oberhausen Film Festival in 1971 where this short documentary won two awards.
Some of her films have caused heated debates and extreme reactions in different countries, for example “Shirins Hochzeit” (1976) about a young Turkish woman in Germany and also "Germany, Pale Mother". Like so many of other NGC directors, she also shot a screen adaptation of one of the most famous German novellas, “Erdbeben in Chili.” (Earthquake in Chili) by Heinrich von Kleist in 1975. Two years later, she released a movie about Heinrich von Kleist, entitled "Heinrich" which won Germany's prestigious Bundesfilmpreis and an award (Goldene Schale) in Cannes.
As a director, she has bravely addressed a wide array of social issues, such as her own parent’s involvement in the Nazi regime and everything from mental illness and labour to feminist critique. Still very interested in German literature, she also made a movie about the poets Gottfried Benn and Else Lasker-Schüler (Mein Herz - niemandem) 1997, and in 2000, "Clara" about Clara Schuhmann. Other notable movies are “Flügel und Fesseln” (The Future of Emily) (1984) which deals with mother-daughter relationship; (“Apfelbäume” in 1991, about the fall of the Berlin Wall, and “Jetzt leben - Juden in Berlin” (Alive - Jews in Berlin) in 1995.
So far, nine of her 24 movies have won international awards and no other female film-maker from Germany has had more movies at the Cannes Film Festival.
In the 90s, she received a number of international awards for her body of work, in 1991 in France, 92 in Germany, mid-90s in Japan and in Portugal, and most recently, the Yasue Yamamoto Award for outstanding artist in Tokyo (actually most popular in Japan and in France). Her next film, Clara is set to be released in 2007 and takes a closer look at the lives of nineteenth century composers Clara and Robert Schumann. |
