After making several TV dramas, German director Christian Petzold first attracted attention in the film field with The State I Am In (2000). At the Berlinale, he won the Fipresci Prize in 2003 for Wolfsburg (presented in the Panorama section) and was selected twice in official competition (with Ghosts in 2005 and Yella in 2007). This international recognition continued in 2008 with his first participation in official competition at the Venice Film Festival with Jerichow.
Interview with the director on abc.net :

David: Christian, this is a very classic story which you’ve given a very modern interpretation. Why did you choose this theme?
Christian Petzold: In the last years I often used classic structures. This had something to do with the theatre. I like the antique drama and tragedies and I like to see how they fit the modern world. And I ask myself where in the American film history where is where you can find class struggle? Because the American movies don’t show work, no factories and no class struggle and a friend of mine, my co-writer Harold (indistinct), said the class struggle you can find in the James M. Cain’s novel The Postman Always Rings Twice. This is an American kind of class struggle and therefore I read that novel again and I said I have to make that novel in our post-(indistinct), modern East Germany World.
See the interview-video

Extracts in Italian from the press conference at the Venice Film Festival can be found on the website: FilmUP

Interview with the director in German on Piffl Medien