Caroline Link

Born in Bad Nauheim in 1964, after receiving her diploma, Caroline Link moved to the United States. She returned to Germany in 1984 to take a study course at the Bavaria Studios after which she worked as assistant to Dominic Graf. From 1986 to 1989 she studied at the Hochschule Für Fernsehen und Film di Monaco, going on to work as a screenwriter with the TV series DER FAHNDER. In 1992 she directed the television film for children KALLE DER TRAUMER for the ZDF. BEYOND SILENCE, her first feature, was presented at GFF 1997. In 2003 her third film NOWHERE IN AFRICA (NIRGENDWO IN AFRIKA) won the Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. In the following years Caroline directed A YEAR AGO IN WINTER (2008) and EXIT MARRAKECH (2013) both screened in Giffoni, ALL ABOUT ME (2018), WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT (2019).

Director’s statement

“Judith Kerr wrote this book in 1971, and it came to Germany a few years later and I first read it when I was 10 or 11 years old. Her book handled a challenging and dark period of German history. She also managed to show what happened [to Jewish people] in a very optimistic, positive, light way. The novel was sad and moving and, at the same time, light. I thought this was very unusual for stories that take place during that time, so why not make a movie that works the same way? Of course, some people told me that I had to dramatise the story a little bit because not a lot happens in the plot. The family doesn’t experience any harm or immediate danger. Let’s make something up, I thought, because if the book worked, let’s try to make the movie in the same way. The screenplay has depth and is profound, and is told in the Judith Kerr style.” (from Women and Hollywood interview)