Frauke Finsterwalder
was born 1975 in Hamburg. After studying literature and history in Berlin she worked at Maxim-Gorki-theatre and at Volksbühne and was editor at Süddeutsche Zeitung. Later on she studied Documentary film at HFF Munich. She lives in Eastern Africa with her family. Finsterworld is her first feature film.
Filmography (selection)
2002 Schulkrieg (short)
2004 0,003 Km (short)
2005 Expedition Heimat (doc, feature-length)
2007 Weil der Mensch ein Mensch ist (doc, medium-length)
2006 Total Control can be the Death of a Man’s work (doc, medium-length)
2009 Die Grosse Pyramide (doc, feature-length)
2013 Finsterworld (fiction debut feature)
Finsterworld is set in in a Germany, apparently fallen out of time. A country, in which the sun is always shining, children are wearing school uniforms and policemen bear costumes and where pedicurists give biscuits to old ladies. But behind the beauty of this parallel world lurks the abyss, and that's where the journey goes. In Finsterworld director Frauke Finsterwaelder shows a universe of somnambulistic beauty, enchanting and disenchanting at the same time, with a long term poetical power. Affectionate, absurd and destructive she depicts her heroes in this idyl rececting Heimatfilm. That ́s definitely no realism. And if it wouldn ́t be so cruel it would be terribly funny.