Andreas Dresen, whose career began as the Berlin Wall was crumbling, is currently one of Germany's most successful filmmakers. With its breakthrough use of cast improvisation instead of a script, his film Grill Point (2001) was an audience favorite at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival. His film Night Shapes (1998) also earned critical acclaim as a slice-of-life look at Berlin. And Dresen's first feature, Silent Country (1992), was set in the East German provinces. In it, an eager theater director tries to stage Waiting for Godot in a run-down, small-town theater with a cast of cynics and drunks, who try to make sense of the historic events of 1989 that seemed wistfully far away.

Andreas Dresen is also known as a theater director and has worked at the Cottbus Theater and Deutsche Theater in Berlin. Besides others Kasimir and Karoline premiered in May 2006. In February 2006 he made his debut as an opera director at the Theater Basel in Switzerland with Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

Dresen was born in Gera, East Germany, in 1963. He initially worked as a sound engineer for the Schwerin Theater, then he studied directing at the Konrad Wolf Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. He began working as a screenwriter and director in 1992. He received the Andrzej Wajda / Philip Morris Freedom Prize in 2002. Presently, he lives in Potsdam and is a member of the Academy of Arts Berlin-Brandenburg.

Filmography

The Little Clown (Der kleine Clown, short film) 1985; Another's Step (Schritte des anderen; short film) 1986; Beyond Klein-Wanzleben (Jenseits von Klein-Wanzleben; documentary) 1989; Train In the Distance (Zug in die Ferne; short) 1990; Short Cut To Istanbul (So schnell geht es nach Istanbul; short film) 1990; Everything Remains Different (Es bleibt alles ganz anders; documentary) 1991; Fools Won't Die Out (Die Narren sterben nicht aus; documentary) 1991; Lulu (film for the performance at the Pariser Oper) 1991; Silent Country (Stilles Land) 1992; Choosing a Bride (Die Brautwahl; film for the performance at the Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin) 1992; Krauses' Pub (Krauses Kneipe; documentary; TV) 1993; Cuckoo's Children (Kuckuckskinder; documentary; TV) 1994; My Unknown Husband (Mein unbekannter Ehemann; TV) 1995; The Other Life of Mr. Kreins (Das andere Leben des Herrn Kreins; TV) 1995; Hometown Stories: Old Friends (Heimatgeschichten: Alte Freunde; TV) 1995; Hometown Stories; Jump Into Happiness (Heimatgeschichten: Sprung ins Glueck; TV) 1995; Girlfriend Against One's Will (Freundin wider Willen; TV) 1995; Police Call 110 - The Exchange (Polizeiruf 110-Der Tausch; TV) 1996; Changing Skins (Raus aus der Haut, TV) 1997; Night Shapes (Nachtgestalten) 1998; The Policewoman (Die Polizistin, TV) 2000; Grill Point (Halbe Treppe) 2001; Vote for Henryk! (Herr Wichmann von der CDU; documentary) 2003; Willenbrock (Willenbrock) 2005; Summer in Berlin (Sommer vorm Balkon) 2005.