Biography
Eva Neymann was born on June 21, 1974, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. In 1993, she emigrated to Germany, where she studied law in Marburg. In 1997, she began studying directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb). During her studies, she made several short and medium-length narrative and documentary films in Ukraine, which were screened at international festivals. She also gained experience as an intern on the set of Kira Muratova's "Vtorostepennye lyudi" ("Secondary People", 2001), whose work she is sometimes seen as continuing by film scholars.
For the TV channel 3sat, she produced the documentary series "Fremde Kinder – Das Meer sehen" (2005) as a dffb production. Her dffb graduation film "Wege Gottes" ("God's Ways," 2006), about two street children in Odessa, won the First Steps Award for Best Documentary.
After graduating, Neymann directed three feature films in Ukraine. "U reki" ("At the River," 2007) premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and received the Foreign Office Award at the Wiesbaden goEast Film Festival for "artistic originality that fosters cultural diversity." Her second feature, "Dom s bashenkoy" ("House with a Turret," 2012), based on the short story by Friedrich Gorenstein, won the East of the West Award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn.
The drama "Pesn pesney" ("Song of Songs," 2015), adapted from a story by Jewish writer Sholem Aleichem, screened at the Odessa International Film Festival in both the National and International Competitions, winning the top prize in both sections. In 2021, Neymann directed the documentary "Pryvoz," centered on the eponymous market in Odessa, which also screened at multiple festivals.
Between October 2023 and April 2024, Neymann shot another documentary in Odessa, "When Lightning Flashes Over the Sea," a poetic yet grounded portrait of the city and its inhabitants during wartime. The film premiered in February 2025 in the Forum section of the Berlinale and was released in German cinemas in November of the same year.
Eva Neymann lives in Berlin.