Pia MARAIS

Pia Marais grew up in South Africa and Sweden. She studied sculpture and photography at art academies in London, Amsterdam and finally the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf where she began experimenting with film, she went on to study film at the Deutsche Film und Fernseh Akademie (dffb) in Berlin, where she graduated. During this period, she also worked as a casting director, writer and assistant director on feature films. Her first feature film Die Unerzogenen (The Unpolished), 2007, has screened at many international film festivals and has won various prizes, including the Tiger Award 2007 in Rotterdam. She is now in the process of developing her second feature film Im Alter von Ellen (At Ellen’s age) – working title – a tragic comic story of a flight attendant, whose life has taken a shattering turn into the unknown. Whilst looking for a place to belong, Ellen becomes a tourist in the lives of the people and groups that she encounters.