Rolf Schuebel

= Rolf Schübel =

Born November 11 1942 in Stuttgart, Germany

Film director Rolf Schübel

The documentary and film director Rolf Schübel studied literature and sociology during the sixties, first in Tuebingen, and later on in Hamburg. There he met filmmaker Theo Gallehr and assisted at his documentary "Landfriedensbruch” (1967). However, the film was not shown in television but went directly to the film archives, the NDR (North German Broadcasting Studios), as employer refused to broadcast the film because it’s statement was viewed as to radical.

Nevertheless Gallehr and Schübel produced a number of films for the NDR and WDR afterwards. For their documentary "The German small towns" (1968) they received the Adolf Grimme Award, as well as for "red flags can be seen better” (1971) concerning the closure of a chemical plant Krefeld.

In 1972 Rolf Schübel founded his own production company. In the following years he created the film portraits "Obitaury for a beast“ (1983) concerning the child murderer Juergen Bartsch and "The Indian" (1987) about a man with laryngeal cancer. The film was based on the autobiographical tale of Leonhard Lenz. Both films recived various awards.

His first feature film directed Schübel 1990 with "The homesickness of Walerjan Wrobel." The film tells the story of a polish Teenager, who was forced to do labor work during the second world war in northern Germany and later was sentenced to death by the nazi regime for a minor misdemeanor. Rolf Schübels international breakthrough came with the film “Gloomy Sunday” (aka “Gloomy Sunday a song of love and death” aka “the piano player”). Schübels laborious work plays in Budapest of the thirties and tells the story of a woman (Erika Marozsán) between three men (Joachim Król, Ben Becker and Stefano Dinonisi). Background is the popular title melody, which was kind of a anthem for suicides during it’s time. The film won various awards among others the German film award; the film award of Bavaria; Best Feature Film; Honorable Mention from the international Filmfestival Jerusalem (Israel 2000); audience award International Filmfestival Sao Paulo (Brasil 2000) International Filmfestival of St. Louis (USA), Audience Choice Award

2001 he wrote and directed the brilliant psychodrama "Collapse" with an excellent Sebastian Koch as a journalist who questioned his job critically. 2002 he directed the drama "Blueprint (film)" with Franka Potente.2004 he made the excellent drama "Zeit der Wünsche" and "Tatort" episodes "End of Dream" (2006) and "The dead man from the curbside" (2007).

Filmography