Volker Schlöndorff, born on 31 March 1939 in Wiesbaden, is one of Germany's best-known directors - and has been since 1966, when he directed his first feature film, "Der junge Törless" (based on the novel by Robert Musil). Before that, Schlöndorff had worked as an assistant to renowned directors such as Ludwig Berger, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville and Alain Resnais. He won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 1979 for the Grass film adaptation "The Tin Drum" and the Oscar one year later. His other literary adaptations include Max Frisch's "Homo Faber", Arthur Miller's drama "Death of a Salesman" and "The Forgery" based on the novel by Nicolas Born. One of his greatest public successes is "The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum" based on the story by Heinrich Böll. In his laudatory speech on the occasion of the award of the Carl Zuckmayer Medal 2009, media scientist Thomas Koebner emphasised that Schlöndorff's films are borne by a great sense of justice: he stands up for the disadvantaged in a discreet, unobtrusive way. His characters always know how to help themselves and are "always on the verge of transformation". For his most recent film, the documentary "The Forest Maker" (2022), Schlöndorff travelled to West Africa at the age of 82 with the Australian Tony Rinaudo. Rinaudo first came to Niger in 1981 as a young agronomist to combat the growing spread of deserts and the misery of the population. But his attempts to stop the desert by planting trees failed. Then he noticed a vast network of roots under the supposedly dead soil - a discovery that led to an unprecedented greening campaign and gave new hope to countless people. Our collection includes several films directed by Schlöndorff as well as documentaries in which he appeared as an expert witness. (Portrait photo: wikipedia, creator/copyright: Martin Kraft)