Biography
Hanna Antonina Wojcik Slak was born in 1975 in Warsaw, Poland, and grew up in what was then Yugoslavia. Her early exposure to film came through her parents: Polish sound engineer and sound designer Hanna Preuss Slak, and Slovenian filmmaker Franci Slak. In 1998, she began studying Comparative Literature at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, followed by Film Directing at the Academy for Theatre, Radio, Film, and Television (AGRFT) in Ljubljana.
Slak's feature film debut, the psychological drama "Slepa pega" ("Blind Spot", SI 2002), garnered several international awards, including the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Don Quichote Prize at the Cottbus Film Festival. In 2005, she participated in a European Film Academy masterclass, contributing to the episodic film "Co/Ma," directed by Mike Figgis and shot in Slovenia.
Her second feature film, the coming-of-age fairy tale "Teah" (SI 2007), received accolades at the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož. The short experimental film "LABORAT" (2014), which she wrote and edited (directed by Guillaume Cailleau), won the Silver Bear for Best Short Film at the 2014 Berlinale. Slak's third feature film, "Unter Tage" ("The Miner", SI/DE 2017), was Slovenia's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2018 Oscars. Although it was not nominated, it earned several awards at international festivals.
In September 2023, Slak premiered her fourth feature film, the mother-son drama "Kein Wort" ("Not A Word", DE/FR/SI), at the Toronto Film Festival. This film, her first German-language project, was released in German theaters in June 2024.
Hanna Slak currently lives in Berlin with her family.