Hanna Schygulla

Hanna Schygulla — Biography

Hanna Schygulla was born on 25 December 1943 in Königshütte (present-day Chorzów, Poland), which then lay within German territory.

While studying acting in Munich she met the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and their collaboration, which began in 1965, made her one of the defining faces of New German Cinema.

Her performance in Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun earned her the Silver Bear for best actress at the 1979 Berlin Film Festival, and she won the best actress prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival for Marco Ferreri's The Story of Piera.

Resident in Paris from the early 1980s onward, she also worked with directors such as Wim Wenders and Fatih Akın, and appeared in Turkish director Erden Kıral's film Mavi Sürgün, based on the exile years of writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı.

Also active as a chanson singer throughout her career, Schygulla continues to take on film roles today.