Michael Kann

Michael Kann (born 13 January 1950) is a German film director and actor. He was born in Berlin, East Germany, on 13 January 1950. Education Kann graduated from the Alexander von Humboldt extended secondary school in Berlin-Köpenick, as a skilled heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) technician. However, he had become interested in film and theater, so he joined the Staatliche Schauspielschule Berlin (State drama school, now HfS Ernst Busch, graduating in 1971. Kann found work as an Actor and Assistant Director at the Deutsches Theater (German Theater, Berlin until 1975. From 1975 to 1979, Kann studied directing at the GDR's Deutsche Hochschule für Filmkunst (Academy of Film Art) in Potsdam-Babelsberg, now the Konrad Wolf Babelsberg Film University. After the Singer-Songwriter Wolf Biermann was stripped of his citizenship by the East Germany (GDR) government, Kann openly criticized the regime. This led to difficulties for Kann, and it was only through the intervention of Konrad Wolf, a friend of Kann's, that he was able to continue with his studies. First Feature In 1979, Kann produced his graduation film Natalja dir, dir Isaak ("Dedicated to Natalija and Isaak") with Jenny Gröllmann and Hilmar Baumann. The basis for this film was a story in the memoirs of the Soviet writer, journalist, and historian Ilya Erenburg, which also appeared in Erenburg's Black Book, which was banned under Stalin. In the memoir, a Russian woman hid her Jewish husband under the stove for 26 months in the German-occupied Smolensk region and told their children that their father was a rat. Bertolt Brecht also mentioned this story after meeting Erenburg at Anna Seghers’ residence in Berlin. Natalja dir, dir Isaak was broadcast on state television on 6 May 1980 and screened at a CILECT convention in Edinburgh the same year. It was subsequently invited to the Student Academy Award in the USA. However, it was not entered in the competition as the submission was prevented by the Cultural Department of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). An invitation to the film festival in Tampere (Finland) was also turned down by the SED.