Ralf Kirsten (Leipzig, 1930 – Berlin, 1998) studied German and Theatre at the Humboldt University in Berlin, leaving to study directing at the Prague Film School (FAMU) in 1952. After his return in 1957, Kirsten worked for the East German television station and became an assistant to Slatan Dudow one year later. The first film he directed, Steinzeitballade, premiered in 1960. Kirsten experimented and combined the flavor of the postwar period with elements of Brecht's alienation effects (Verfremdungeffekte). The result was an exceptional film document praised by the press. Kirsten's subsequent movies were also very successful. The ban put by East German officials on his film The Lost Angel, about the German expressionist sculptor Ernst Barlach, marred his otherwise smooth carrier. Kirsten made a few more films for the DEFA studio, worked for public television, and taught at the Film and Television Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg.

Filmography

Stone Age Ballad (Steinzeitballade) 1960; On the Sunny Side (Auf der Sonnenseite) 1962; Description of a Summer (Beschreibung eines Sommers) 1963; Follow me, Rascals! (Mir nach, Canaillen!) 1964; The Lost Angel (Der verlorene Engel) 1966/1971; A Pyramid For Me (Eine Pyramide fuer mich) 1975; I'll Force You To Live (Ich zwing dich zu leben) 1978; Under the Pear Tree (Unterm Birnbaum) 1973; Where Others Keep Silent (Wo andere schweigen) 1984; Kaethe Kollwitz – Images of a Life (Kaethe Kollwitz – Bilder eines Lebens) 1986.