Štěpán Altrichter, born 1981 in Brno, Czech Republic, grew up in Prague and southern Germany. From 2002 to 2005 he studied philosophy and psychology in Berlin; at the same time he gained his first practical film experience through internships and student jobs at film production companies. In 2005 he began studying directing at the Berlin film school film 'Arche'; the following year he successfully applied to study directing at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film 'Konrad Wolf' in Potsdam-Babelsberg. There he made several short films; in 2008 he was a scholarship holder of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

For his graduation film, Altrichter received a scholarship from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation: "Schmitke" (DE/CZ 2014), the tragicomic character study of an engineer (Peter Kurth) in midlife crisis, who, in a fairytale way, finds himself in the Czech province, premiered at the Busan Film Festival, in South Korea. At the Film Festival Cottbus 2014 it was awarded Best Debut Film; at the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 2015 "Schmitke" received the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Music and Sound Design. The film opened in German cinemas in November 2015. 

In autumn 2018, the filming of Altrichter's next movie took place: "Nationalstraße ("National Street") based on the novel of the same name by Jaroslav Rudiš, tells the story of a rough-and-ready prefabricated building resident in Prague who wants to protect his favourite pub from property sharks. The film was released in German cinemas in June 2020.