Barbara Sukowa

Biography

Barbara Sukowa, born February 2, 1950, in Bremen, studied acting at Berlin's Max-Reinhardt-Seminar and performed at several renowned German theatres. Simultaneously, Sukowa became an important movie and TV actress. In 1977, she starred in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's TV movie "Frauen in New York" ("Women in New York"). Sukowa made her breakthrough in front of the camera in the role of Mieze in Fassbinder's TV adaptation of "Berlin Alexanderplatz". She then played the title role of the small town prostitute "Lola" in Fassbinder's trilogy about the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Sukowa then starred in Margarethe von Trotta's "Die bleierne Zeit" ("Marianne and Julianne"), for which she received the German Film Award in 1982, and won the Golden Palm at the 1986 Cannes film festival for her performance in von Trotta's "Rosa Luxemburg". For her portrayal of the socialist icon she also won her second German Film Award. In the following years, Sukowa continued to work with renowned directors. She starred, for instance, in Volker Schlöndorff's adaptation of Max Frisch's novel "Homo Faber" and in Lars von Trier's "Europa".

After several US productions Barbara Sukowa returned to Germany for a couple of movies. In 1998, she won the Bavarian film award for her performance as the depressive Anna Loeser in the TV production "Im Namen der Unschuld" ("In The Name of Innocence"). Furthermore, she played leading roles in Hans Steinbichler's "Hierankl" and in "Die andere Frau" ("The Other Woman"), again directed by Margarethe von Trotta.

After a highly-praised performance in Ulla Wagner's film "Die Entdeckung der Currywurst" ("the Invention of the Curried Sausage"), Sukowa again starred in a film directed by Margarethe von Trotta: In "Vision – Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen" ("Vision"), she plays the legendary mystic who became kind of an early icon of the women's movement in medieval times.

For her portrayal of the famous jewish German-American philosopher and journalist in von Trotta's "Hannah Arendt" (2012), Sukowa won the German Film Award for Best Female Actor – her third win after "Die Bleierne Zeit" and "Rosa Luxemburg".

In 2015, she reunited with Margarethe von Trotta for the family drama "Die abhandene Welt" ("The Misplaced World") and joined the cast of the US Sci-Fi series "Twelve Monkeys". She next starred opposite Josef Hader in "Vor der Morgenröte". Directed by Maria Schrader, the film chronicles writer Stefan Zweig's life in exile. Her portrayal of Zweig's first wife garnered Sukowa a German Film award nomination for Best Supporting Female Actor.