NVA

Leander Haußmann, born June 26, 1959, in Quedlinburg as the son of the actor Ezard Haußmann, at first worked as a printer before he started actor’s training at Hochschule Ernst Busch in East Berlin in 1982. Despite successful performances at several theatres, Haußmann became a theatre director in 1990 – and was promptly named “Best new director” by “Theater heute” in 1991. At that time, Haußmann directed plays for Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Nationaltheater Weimar, and Salzburg Festival. In 1993, his productions of “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen. Until 1995, Haußmann worked at Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar and subsequenty became the (quite controversial) director of Schauspielhaus Bochum for five years.

In 1997, Haußmann caused a scandal with his maverick interpretation of “Die Fledermaus” at Munich’s Staatsoper. On the other hand, he succeeded with his productions of Ulrich Plenzdorf’s “Die Legende von Paul und Paula” (2000) at Volksbühne Berlin and of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (2003) at Berliner Ensemble.

After several minor appearances in movies by Detlev Buck and Christoph Schlingensief, among others, Haußmann made his debut as a movie director in 1999: His adaptation of Thomas Brussig’s novel “Sonnenallee” about the life of teenagers in the GDR became a big success with critics and moviegoers alike. Furthermore, the film won the German film award in silver. Haußmann’s second movie, the sarcastic Kreuzberg comedy “Herr Lehmann” (2002), also won two German film awards (for supporting actor and screen play). His third film, the satirical comedy “NVA” (2005) about the last months of the GDR’s Volksarmee (National People’s Army) was less successful with critics and moviegoers than his first two films. In 2007, Haußmann finished his fourth film as a director, “Warum Männer nicht zuhören und Frauen schlecht einparken können” a comedy about new and old stereotypes in the battle of the sexes.

One year later, Haußmann finished “Robert Zimmermann wundert sich über die Liebe” (“Robert Zimmermann Is Tangled Up In Love”). The comedy, based on the novel by Gernot Gricksch, won the 2008 Bavarian Film Award in the category “Best screen play” and received well-meaning reviews but did turn out as a success at the box office. Haußmann ranks among the most productive German film directors due to his high and quick output of films. His next film was the satirical comedy “Dinosaurier – Gegen uns seht ihr alt aus!” (2009), a tribute to Bernhard Sinkel’s classic film “Lina Braake” from 1975. —filmportal.de