Herbert Brödl, born in St. Pölten, Austria, in 1949, visited the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar from 1968 to 1969 and studied Philosophy at the University of Vienna from 1969 to 1973. In 1971 and 1972 he made his first films for ORF, the Austrian broadcasting company. In 1974 Brödl moved to Hamburg and wrote screenplays that were made into films by Peter Lilienthal, Rainer Boldt and Volker Vogeler. His books have been published by S. Fischer Verlag and Suhrkamp Verlag. From 1976 he has written and directed films in Peru, Italy, South Africa, Vanuatu, Benin, Zimbabwe and São Tomé e Príncipe, plus eight in Brazil.

His films inhabit the border region between genres, documentary and fictional, fact and fantasy, with found and invented elements and both amateur and professional actors. In 1982 he founded Baumhaus Film Brödl in Hamburg, which produced his films until 2002. From 1993 to 2007 he worked on an equator cycle of six films with locations and stories in equatorial regions.

Herbert Brödl died December 16, 2015 in Enzenkirchen.