17 September 2021

Akademie der Künste opens Markus Imhoof Archive

Swiss filmmaker Markus Imhoof has donated his extensive artistic archive to the Akademie der Künste. On the occasion of his 80th birthday this coming Sunday, 19 September 2021, his archive will be opened to researchers and the interested public: www.archiv.adk.de/bigobjekt/3568.

The Markus Imhoof Archive comprises 55 linear metres of screenplays, draft screenplays, shooting schedules and other production documents, work and scene photographs, advertising and press material as well as reviews of all of Imhoof’s films and theatre productions. It also includes extensive correspondence and biographical material. As a first step, documents pertaining to his films and theatre productions will now be made accessible.

Markus Imhoof was born in Winterthur in 1941. He studied German, art history and history in Zurich and was Leopold Lindtberg’s assistant at Schauspielhaus Zürich before attending the film school at Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich. Since 1968, he has been an independent director and author, primarily dedicating himself to socially critical and political topics, as in his first documentary films Rondo (1968), a critique of the Swiss penal system, and Ormenis 199+99 (1969), about the Swiss cavalry. In 1980, Markus Imhoof drew attention to the behaviour of the Swiss toward Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in Das Boot ist voll. The film won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale and was nominated for an Oscar.

Die Reise followed in 1986, based on the autobiographical novel by Bernward Vesper on the generational conflict of the student protest movement of 1968 up to the early days of the Red Army Faction (RAF). Over the last decade, the filmmaker has documented the threatened disappearance of bees in More than Honey (2012) and the situation of refugees fleeing across the Mediterranean Sea in Eldorado (2018). In addition to his film work, Markus Imhoof has also been producing theatre plays since 1987, among others in Lucerne, Bern, Saarbrücken and Vienna. He was a founding member of the Film and Media Art Section of the Akademie der Künste in 1984. A list of his many works and accolades is available at www.adk.de.

On 18 September 2021, 3Sat is showing the portrait Markus Imhoof – Reisender Rebell, Kriegerischer Poet (2021) as part of a retrospective. For further information see www.markus-imhoof.ch.

Inquiries: Dr Torsten Musial, Director of the Film and Media Art Section.
Tel. +49 (0)30 200 57-32 58, musial@adk.de