Skip to main content

Pierre Besson

Actor
Pierre Besson, born on April 4, 1967, in East Berlin, is a German actor with over 40 years of experience in film, television, and theater. He comes from a prominent acting family: his mother is Ursula Karusseit, his father is theater director Benno Besson, and he is the half-brother of Katharina Thalbach. His best-known role is that of Inspector Matti Wagner in the ZDF series SOKO Köln, in which he has appeared regularly since 2011. Prior to that, he appeared in productions such as Niemals ohne dich (Never Without You) and Tatort, Hindenburg, and other crime series. Pierre Besson made a significant cinema appearance in the drama SPRICH MIT MIR (2023), directed by Janin Halisch. In it, he plays the father of the protagonist Karo, who travels with her mother to Rügen for a vacation. While her mother begins a new relationship, Karo embarks on an emotional journey of self-discovery, in which Besson's role as an absent, enigmatic father plays a central role. He also starred in the TV miniseries German Crime Story – Gefesselt, in which he played investigator Matti Wagner. In this format, he displays a thoughtful profile with a recurring stature. His international film credits include a role in Hindenburg: The Last Flight and other television films. Pierre Besson impresses with his powerful presence, credible acting, and a special ability to portray family conflicts authentically. With his acting versatility and cultural background, he is considered a distinctive character actor in the German-speaking world.

Films

Talk to Me

Talk to Me

By Janin Halisch

2023 | 79 min | Drama

When a mother and her daughter take a vacation at the Baltic Sea, it quickly turns into a journey into the past that opens up old wounds.

Recommended for you

Art Girls

Art Girls

2014 | 120 min | Independent

ART GIRLS by Robert Bramkamp asks just these questions, as a satire of the art world in a science fiction format - or is it the other way around? "ART GIRLS is a science fiction from Germany, 2013, with three Berlin artists at the center of the action. Using real art by Susanne Weirich, Maren Strack, Öyvind Fahlström, Jonathan Meese, Martin Kippenberger, Paul McCarthy and many more. The artists notice that features of their art extend into the real world. They even overlap, creating a truly multi-layered, ...

Minus One

Minus One

2016 | 16 min | Shorts

Summer in Athens, and Elsa’s family isn’t the only one renting their apartment to tourists. At their "spare apartment" there’s little space for the young lady’s dreams.

The Long Summer Of Theory

The Long Summer Of Theory

2017 | 82 min | Drama

These three live precarious lives. Katja is a struggling actress. She gets by renting out apartments to tourists. Martina is a photographer who has no interest in her curator's flattery and prefers to scream her head off on stage with her punk band. Filmmaker Nola seeks to answer the question whether theory can still be translated into political practice today. In THE LONG SUMMER OF THEORY the women go on a search for meaning in an increasingly divided society. Especially Nola interviews sociologists, ...

Dancing Alone

Dancing Alone

2012 | 98 min | Documentary

Biene Pilavci deals with the question to what extent the hostility between her parents and the frequent outbreaks of violence influenced her and her four siblings. Although she had already distanced herself from her family at the age of 12, she comes to the realization in the course of her film that you can't go anywhere without taking your past with you. In her moving and very personal DFFB graduation film, Biene Pilavci gives us an intimate insight into the world of a complex family structure ...

Beatrix

Beatrix

2021 | 95 min | Documentary

The film follows a young woman named Beatrix, played by Eva Sommer, as she spends time alone in a house whose previous tenant was older. With no context given, the film's plot revolves around the ordinariness of Beatrix's activities, from taking care of the house to feeding a stray cat. However, it is clear that Beatrix is going through something significant in her life, which is painful and transitional, although the viewer never knows what it is. The non-professional actress Sommer brings a sense ...

Music

Music

2014 | 38 min | Drama

At work, Adam incarnates the persistent official, who checks substandard dwellings with an unruffled expression. He wants to do something different, something like music. His teenage daughter is ruthlessly direct in saying what she thinks of her father: he is a "victim" (and that's meant as an insult), because he still lives in his own debt-riddled home, which the rest of the family has long moved out from. And he is embarrassing because he never says or does anything that she can brag MUSIC is ...

Blue Summer Symphony

Blue Summer Symphony

2017 | 29 min | Shorts

The open-air swimming pool, a sociotope and microcosm of society: different people, half naked in a confined space, share an afternoon, a moment with each other and as quickly as it has come, so quickly it has gone again. That's the poetry inherent in the banality of everyday life. For her third year project, Sinje Köhler observes the figures in the outdoor pool and also sheds light on the architecture of this special landscape.

Talea

Talea

2013 | 75 min | Drama

It's summer holidays, and the planned Italian holiday with Jasmin's foster family is just around the corner. Everyone is looking forward to the trip - except Jasmin. She wants to be with Eva, her mother, who is available to Jasmin for the first time after a long prison term. For weeks Jasmin has been seeking Eva's closeness, she does not give up, even if she is rejected by her. After a fight with her foster family, Jasmin runs away and persuades Eva to spend a short holiday in the countryside with ...

Philipp

Philipp

2010 | 41 min | Drama

Winner of the First Steps Award, PHILIPP is Fabian Möhrke's diploma film from the Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam. Philipp suffers from not being able to detach himself from his cool and friendly (and hovering) father. Philipp is fifteen. Bernd, Philipp’s dad, does what he can to be a good buddy to his son. He’s even full of understanding when Philipp steals from him. And it’s not just Philipp’s friends who think Bernd’s a really cool dad; even Caro, Philipp’s new girlfriend, takes a shine ...

A Dog You Are

A Dog You Are

2021 | 12 min | Shorts

Set against the backdrop of a village swimming pool that becomes a focal point of daily peculiarities, Benjamin Laabmayr's first film delves into the unique blend of the mundane with the extraordinary. Through his lens, the everyday activities of the pool's visitors transform into a series of whimsical vignettes, weaving a narrative rich in humor and surreal observation. Laabmayr's work is a study in contrasts, blending documentary-style realism with elements of staged absurdity, challenging viewers ...