Frauke Finsterwalder

For her second feature film, Sisi & I, released in 2023, she was awarded the Bavarian Film Award for Best Director.

• Name — Frauke Finsterwalder • Birthplace — Hamburg, West Germany • Born — 15 December 1975 • Occupation — Film director and screenwriter • Years Active — 2005–present • Children — 1

Finsterwalder spent part of her early life in the United States before studying literature and history at Humboldt University in Berlin.

Before beginning her career as a director, Finsterwalder worked as an assistant director at Berlin’s Volksbühne theatre and the Maxim Gorki Theatre. In addition to this, she worked as an editor for the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung before returning to study documentary film direction at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München in Munich. In 2005 Finsterwalder directed her first short film, 0.003 km. Finsterwalder cites films by directors Wes Anderson, Terrence Malick and Paul Verhoeven amongst influences for her debut feature film. She frequently casts Sandra Hüller in her films and frequently works with editor Andreas Menn.

After directing her first short, Finsterwalder worked with Stephan Hilpert to direct Weil der Mensch ein Mensch ist ('Because a man is human'). This film, whose title is derived from the lyrics of the United Front Song (Das Einheitsfrontlied) by Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler, deals with the inculcation of democracy in young people. It received very positive press upon its release in 2007.

In 2010, Finsterwalder directed her second documentary film, Die große Pyramide ('The Great Pyramid'). This documentary follows the plans of a group of young men, including German writer Ingo Niermann, who set out to build the largest man-made structure in history: a gigantic Great Pyramid Monument that would be built in fields in eastern Germany and would serve as both a tourist attraction and as the final resting place of over a billion people.

Finsterwalder’s first feature-length film Finsterworld, which was co-written by the Swiss writer Christian Kracht, was premiered at the Munich Film Festival in July 2013. The film follows the interwoven stories of twelve central characters played, amongst others, by Sandra Hüller, Jakub Gierszał, Ronald Zehrfeld, Margit Carstensen, Carla Juri, Michael Maertens and Corinna Harfouch.

Finsterwalder's next feature film, Sisi & I, is a retelling of the later years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray. The cast includes Sandra Hüller, who starred in Finsterwalder's previous film, Finsterworld, as well as Susanne Wolff, Tom Rhys Harries, Stefan Kurt, Georg Friedrich, Angela Winkler and Johanna Wokalek. The film premiered at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival on 19 February 2023, and was released in Germany on 30 March 2023. In June 2023, Finsterwalder was awarded the Bavarian Film Award for Best Director for Sisi & I.

Finsterwalder is married to the Swiss writer Christian Kracht, with whom she has a daughter who was born in 2009. The family has been living in Zurich since 2020.

• 2007: Because a Man is Human • 2010: The Great Pyramid

• 2007: Fremde Kinder (TV series, 1 episode)

• 2013: Finsterworld • 2023: Sisi & I

• 2005: 0.003 km