Skip to main content

Ulrich Köhler

Director
Ulrich Köhler is one of the most influential German auteur filmmakers of his generation. He established a clear signature style early on: precise observations, minimal dialogue, dense atmospheres. He gained international attention with BUNGALOW (2002, director: Ulrich Köhler), which was screened in the Panorama section of the Berlinale and, with its unsentimental coming-of-age perspective, set a tone that characterizes Köhler's later works. With MONTAG KOMMEN DIE FENSTER (2006, directed by Ulrich Köhler), he cemented his reputation as a style-conscious narrator of everyday life; the production is as carefully documented in the central German-language film databases as the credits. Köhler celebrated his greatest festival success with Schlafkrankheit (2011, directed by Ulrich Köhler): the film premiered in competition at the Berlinale and earned him the Silver Bear for Best Director. This officially recognized and internationally confirmed his precise, unemotional gaze. He later returned to the big stage with In My Room (2018, directed by Ulrich Köhler); the film was presented in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes and underscores Köhler's continued presence at A-list festivals. The combination of recognizable style, constant festival presence, and precise auteur perspective makes Köhler's work equally relevant for arthouse cinemas, VOD curators, and the trade press. Those looking for verifiable references will find consistent, publicly available evidence for BUNGALOW, MONTAG KOMMEN DIE FENSTER, Schlafkrankheit, and In My Room on film portals, festival archives, and official production websites.

Films

Bungalow

Bungalow

By Ulrich Köhler

2002 | 84 min | Drama

The Bundeswehr is looking for him, his girlfriend Kerstin breaks up with him, and unexpectedly his older brother Max shows up.

Windows on Monday

Windows on Monday

By Ulrich Köhler

2006 | 92 min | Drama

A new house in a new town could mean the beginning of a phase of domestic bliss for a small family. But the young mother collapses under the burden.

Recommended for you

Babyboy

Babyboy

2023 | 48 min | Drama

Vincent is 16 and wants to do everything a boy is supposed to do to become a man: move out of his mother's house, be accepted by the boys on his football team and sleep with his girlfriend. But between his first love and the separation of his parents lies Vincent's longing to arrive and feel at home again. In the oft-told maze of adolescence, there have always been questions about gender roles that need to be addressed or overturned. What is often neglected are equally relevant prerequisites for ...

Marseille

Marseille

2004 | 91 min | Drama

Sophie flees to Marseille. She roams the streets alone, taking photographs. As she abandons herself to the city, she finds it impossible to reconcile her previous life with the now... Slowly, characters emerge and weave themselves into the story - then a cut follows - and Sophie is back in Berlin. "All my films are based on the idea that much of life is inscrutable, full of misunderstandings and left to chance. The characters live in contradiction to being at the mercy of chance, and are more or ...

Vacation

Vacation

2007 | 92 min | Drama

Four generations meet at a country house. Scenes of veiled jealousy and open teasing, candid confessions and fisticuffs, crack the thin veneer of an idyllic summer vacation. "I wanted to make a film without flashy dramaturgical momentum. I was concerned with finding a balance between the individual storylines and setting them in motion over the course of the film. All the characters who are struggling have only one life. They're all trying to be happy, but they don't know how to do it. It's a long, ...

Afternoon

Afternoon

2007 | 95 min | Drama

Konstantin is an unsuccessful writer, his mother is a narcissistic actress, his uncle is dying and shows no interest in his surroundings. The web of relationships between them, marked by speechlessness and inspired by Chekhov's "The Seagull," gradually unravels until blood ultimately flows. "Angela Schanelec is an auteur filmmaker par excellence, a filmmaker who likes to deliberately subvert audience expectations and subjects her works almost exclusively to rules she has set herself. Afternoon ...

9 Lives

9 Lives

2011 | 106 min | Documentary

9 LIVES portrays the fate of young people who decided at the age of 11, 12 or 13 to leave home and to live on the streets. Any of these young people could have lived nine lives by now and they have been battered, both mentally and physically. But despite this, they have an enormous ability to find their own strengths, gifts and talents. This wealth of personal possibility is the focus of the film. "I was surprised at how many of them didn't fit the stereotypes that are easily associated with homeless ...

A Fine Day

A Fine Day

2001 | 74 min | Drama

DER SCHÖNE TAG is the third part of Thomas Arslan's "Berlin Trilogy," which includes the films GESCHWISTER - KARDEŞLER (1997) and DEALER (1998). "In THE BEAUTIFUL DAY, the character of Deniz may not be representative of an entire population group in its entirety, but in one respect she certainly stands for the experiences of many others her age: She has something else to do besides constantly obsessing about her identity. It was important to me not to define her in terms of what is supposedly ...

Siblings - Kardeşler

Siblings - Kardeşler

1997 | 82 min | Drama

The everyday life of the German-Turkish siblings Erol, Ahmed and Leyla in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The first part of Thomas Arslan's "Berlin Trilogy" with Berlin hip-hop legend Kool Savage. SIBLINGS - KARDEŞLER is the first part of Thomas Arslan's "Berlin Trilogy", which includes the films DEALER (1998) and DER SCHÖNE TAG (2001). "SIBLINGS is the first film to film Turkish youth from their own perspective. Not a treatise on, but a question of everyday scenes, conversations, quarrels, and reconciliations. ...

The Dreamed Path

The Dreamed Path

2017 | 87 min | Drama

Greece 1984: Kenneth, an English musician, and Theres, a young German woman, sing on the street to finance their vacation. They love each other. When Kenneth receives the news that his mother has died in an accident, he hastily travels home, leaving Theres behind. Thirty years later, in Berlin. Ariane, now a 40-year-old television actress, breaks away from her husband. The man moves into an apartment at the main train station. From his window, he sees a homeless person. It is Kenneth, who does not ...

Lower Upper Cut

Lower Upper Cut

2011 | 92 min | Drama

Everyone wants to "get to the top" as early and as fast as possible, and everyone is out for themselves. At the same time, the program itself is being evaluated and is struggling to stay in the curriculum. In order to save the program and themselves, the graduating class rehearses a revolt and is soon surrounded by rumors and intrigue, panic attacks and vanity. "Wackerbarth looks fearlessly into the eye of a central contradiction of the culture industry: people pretend that everything revolves ...

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 ...