Biography
Martina Plura was born in Neuwied on December 12, 1985. Together with her twin sister Monika, who is twelve minutes older and who later made a career as a cinematographer, she shot her first own films on VHS from the age of eleven - according to her own information, around 70 short films of various genres were made by the time she graduated from high school.
After graduating from high school, Martina Plura gained professional experience through jobs and internships with film and television productions. In 2007, she began studying media arts at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts (KHM), during which she made several short films, always with her sister as a cinematographer. In 2011, the two were awarded the Johanna Loewenherz Scholarship by the district of Neuwied; the citation read, "Monika and Martina Plura are women who are successful students in their field, address women's issues in their films, and are particularly committed to women and girls, respectively, through their volunteer work in Neuwied."
In 2011, Martina Plura spent a year abroad in the feature film class of the Escuela Internacional de Ciné y Television in Cuba, where she realized the short film "A que no te atreves" (2012). In Cuba in 2012 she also shot her KHM diploma film "Cuba Libre", a documentary about Havana's underground music scene. Directly afterwards, she completed a master's degree in directing at the Hamburg Media School until 2014 (her sister studied cinematography there at the same time). Her graduation short film there, the existentialist love triangle "Da nicht für", premiered in January 2015 in competition at the Max Ophüls Prize film festival.
Martina Plura made her feature film debut with the male friendship story "Vorstadtrocker" (2015), which was made as part of the NDR young filmmaker series "Nordlichter" and won Best TV Film at the Biberach Film Festival. As always, her sister was responsible for the camera. In 2017, the North German western "Dreizehn Uhrmittags" (TV) followed, in 2018 three episodes of the "Sitcom Tanken - mehr als Super", between 2019 and 2021 five episodes of the crime series "Letzte Spur Berlin". She also directed the episode "Aus dem Ruder" (2020) of the crime series "Friesland".
Martina Plura directed her first feature film with "Mein Lotta-Leben - Alles Tschaka mit Alpaka," which she also co-wrote. The children's film based on the book series by Alice Pantermüller started in theaters in August 2022.