Biography
Petra Lüschow, born 1966, studied German language and literature as well as theatre and film studies in Berlin and Vienna from 1986 to 1992. In 1996, she successfully applied to the Academy for Film and Television 'Konrad Wolf' in Potsdam (today: Film University Babelsberg), where she studied until 2001 obtaining a diploma in screenplay and dramaturgy. During her studies, in 2000, she published a collection of short stories "Flores und Antiflores". She also wrote her first scripts, for example for the crime series "Küstenwache", as a student. She graduated with the screenplay for Petra Biondina Volpe's short film "Schlorkbabies an der Raststätte" (2002).
Lüschow's first screenplay for a feature film production was the intimate New Economy drama "Nachbeben" ("Going Private", CH 2006, together with director Stina Werenfels), which premiered at the Panorama of the Berlinale 2006. At the Swiss Film Awards "Nachbeben" was nominated in the category Best Screenplay. In 2006 she was one of the authors of the ten-part children's series "Unsere zehn Gebote", in which situations of conflict contained in the ten commandments were explained for children. The series was nominated for a Grimme Special Prize; the 5th episode written by Lüschow received a nomination for the Robert Geissendörfer Prize.
Furthermore, Lüschow co-wrote the script for Kerstin Ahlrich's highly acclaimed dffb graduation film "Sieh zu, dass du Land gewinnst" (2006), which was co-produced by the public broadcaster ZDF. With Bettina Oberli she adapted the bestseller "Tannöd" ("The Murder Farm", CH/DE 2009, director: Oberli) for the big screen. She also wrote screenplays for the series "Sturm der Liebe" (2005-2006) and "Der Bulle von Tölz" (2005/2008).
Petra Lüschow made her directorial debut in 2010 with the short film comedy "Der kleine Nazi" ("The Little Nazi"), about a family whose grandmother resurrects the Nazi Christmas of her childhood. The film has been shown at numerous festivals around the world and has won numerous awards, including the Murnau Short Film Award, the Triest Film Festival Short Film Award (Italy) and the Best Comedy Award of the international short film festival 'Heart of Gold' in Melbourne (Australia).
Despite this success, Lüschow then devoted herself entirely to script writing again. For Swiss television she wrote the Lucerne "Tatort" episode "Schmutziger Donnerstag" (CH 2013, directed by Dani Levy) and the award-winning tragicomedy "Der Hamster" (CH 2015, directed by Tom Gerber).
In addition to her work as an author and director, Petra Lüschow has been leading workshops and seminars. As a lecturer and mentor for scenic writing and dramaturgy, she worked at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (2005) and the International Film School in Cologne (2006-2012). Since 2012 she has been working at dffb on projects of the "Leuchtstoffprogramm", an initiative of the public broadcaster RBB and the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg to promote films from the region. From 2014 to 2016 she was a member of the screenplay commission of the Filmförderungsanstalt.
Lüschow’s debut as a feature film scriptwirter was the coming-of-age story "Petting statt Pershing" ("Good Girl Gone Bad"), set in the German province of 1983. The film premiered at the Hofer Filmtage and at the Cleveland International Film Festival (USA), Lüschow won the New Direction Competition prize. The German theatrical release took place in September 2019.