Ulrich Weiß was born in Wernigerode in 1942. From 1965 to 1970, he studied cinematography and directing at the Academy for Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. He started directing at the DEFA Studio for Documentary Films in 1971. As of 1976, he also worked as a guest director in the DEFA Studio for Feature Films, moving there full-time in 1982. After making the children’s film, Tambari (1976), he planned his feature film debut, Tanz im Volkshaus (transl. Dance in the Community House), a film about East Germany in the 1950s. The studio management rejected this script, however, as well as many others in the years that followed. Even the films that Weiß was allowed to produce—such as the story of a resistance fighter in 1935, Dein unbekannter Bruder (1981) and a film about a professional boxer after WWII, Olle Henry (1983), which received international praise—were met with indignation by East German officials. After the Wall came down, Weiß finally directed Miraculi (1991), a project he had been planning for over ten years.

Selected Filmography

1994 The Holy Family (short)

1992 Abstecher (transl. Side Trip, doc.)

1991 Miraculi

1983 Olle Henry (Good Old Henry)

1981 Dein unbekannter Bruder (Your Unknown Brother)

1979 Blauvogel (Blue Bird)

1976 Tambari

1975 Potemkin frei (Potemkin Freed, doc.)

1972 Meine Waffen sind nicht gebrochen – nur mein Herze brach (transl. My Weapons Aren’t Broken-Only my Heart Broke, TV doc.)

1971 Montage adé… - Ein Brigadier erzählt (No More Installations. . .- A Brigadier Reports, doc.)