Oliver Hirschbiegel

Was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1957. In his teens, he left high school and worked on a boat.

He later studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, where he also began experimenting with video and photography. His experimental movies attracted the attention of some German television producers.

He was a popular television director, and in 2001 he shot his first feature film, The Experiment, which won the Audience Award at the German Film Awards as the best German film of the year. (Sundance Film festival)