Peter Kahane was born on May 30, 1949 in Prague. His father worked as a journalist and a foreign correspondent and his mother was an artist. Kahane first studied at the Humboldt University in Berlin, where in 1971 he attained certification to teach both French and Russian.

After completing a year of service in the National People's Army from 1974 to 1975, Kahane began studying at the Film and Television Academy in Potsdam-Babelsberg. During this time he completed three films, among them Trumpet, Bell, Last Letters, which received an award at the International Film Festival in Leipzig in 1978. After completing his studies in 1979, Kahane worked as an assistant to directors such as Heiner Carow and Egon Schlegel.

Kahane's debut film, Women's Work, appeared in 1984. The ensuing years were some of the most productive and critically successful in Kahane's career, marked by one of his best known films, Ete and Ali. Very well received by East German teenagers, Ete and Ali is a coming-of-age story featuring two friends who have just completed mandatory military service. Kahane's subsequent film, Prepared For Love, was similar in its focus on daily life and was equally well received. Both films were honored with prizes.

The Architects, Kahane's most critical and politically engaged film, was begun in 1989 – the year the Berlin Wall fell – and released the following year. It was awarded the Special Prize at the National Feature Film Festival of the GDR, as well as the Prize of the Catholic Film Commission.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, Kahane took a short break to assess the film scene before releasing the unsuccessful Cosima's Lexicon in 1992, and then waited seven more years to make his next feature, To the Horizon and Beyond, in 1999, which was received with much more enthusiasm. Since the mid-1990s, Kahane has also been directing and writing screen plays for TV movies, such as A Father for Klette (2003), as well as for crime series such as Police Call 110 (Polizeiruf 110) and From Case to Case (Von Fall zu Fall). Currently Kahane is working on a feature film with plans for release in 2005.

Filmography

Women's Work (Weiberwirtschaft) 1984; Ete and Ali (Ete und Ali) 1985; Prepared For Love (Vorspiel) 1987; The Architects (Die Architekten) 1990; Cosima's Lexicon (Cosimas Lexikon) 1992;To the Horizon and Beyond (Bis zum Horizont und weiter) 1999; Devilish Angel (Teuflischer Engel) 2000; From Case to Case (Von Fall zu Fall – Auf Leben und Tod) 2003; A Father for Klette (Ein Vater fuer Klette) 2003; The Blue Miracle (Das blaue Wunder) 2004).