Biography
Christian Klandt, born August 4, 1978, in Frankfurt an der Oder, grew up in Beeskow in Brandenburg and made Super-8 and video films already during his time at school. At that time, he also collaborated with René Gorski who later became the cinematographer of his films. After finishing school he started to study traffic management in Thuringia, but moved to Berlin in 2000 where he worked as editor and head of department for the online content provider ovivo. He then worked in numerous jobs as assistant director, assistant casting agent, and assistant producer for several film and TV productions. Besides, Klandt also worked as an assistant director at Stuekke-Theater and at Berliner Theaterdiscounter that was co-founded by Klandt.
In October 2004, Klandt started to study film and TV directing at Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen in Potsdam-Babelsberg. After the short fairy-tale movie "Schausteins letzter Film" that drew a lot of attention at several international festivals, Klandt finished his first full-length feature film "Weltstadt" ("City of the World") in 2008. Based on the infamous murder case that had occurred in Klandt's former hometown Beeskow, the film tells the story of two teenagers who attack a sleeping homeless person and burn him alive. "Weltstadt" won the "Bronze Rosa Camuna" award at the 2009 Bergamo Film Meeting. Furthermore, the psychological drama won the "Silver Zenith" in the First Feature Films Competition at the 2008 Montréal World Film Festival.
In January 2010, Klandt completed the tragicomedy "Bundeskanzler Honecker", which later premiered at Jeonju Film Festival in South Korea. At the 2012 Munich Film Festival, he presented his second full-length feature film "Little Thirteen" about two teenage girls from a poor background whose lives seemingly revolve around parties, casual sex and drugs, but who ultimately long for love and understanding. "Little Thirteen" was shown at various international festivals and won the No Fear Award for Best Newcomer Production at the First Steps Awards in Berlin.
In the following years Klandt developed several film projects. In 2016 he realised the documentary "Ratten", in 2018 he directed the six-part coming-of-age series "Wir sind jetzt", about a youth clique whose carefree party life is thrown off course by the death of a friend. The series was broadcast in 2019.
Two years earlier, in April 2017, the filming of Klandt's feature film "Leif in Concert Vol. 2" had already taken place. The crowdfunded film portrays a working day of a bartender (Luise Heyer), in whose music pub a concert is held in the evening. The premiere took place at Filmfest München 2019, where "Leif in Concert Vol. 2" won the Förderpreis Neues Deutsches Kino as Best Production. In July 2020 the film will was theatrically released.