Born in Berlin, Margarethe von Trotta is one of the leaders of the New German Cinema movement, as well as one of the world's most important feminist filmmakers. Since the early 1960s, von Trotta has then pursued acting, working closely with both Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff, who later became her husband. Her first film, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum was co-directed with Schlöndorff in 1975. Following her first independent directorial effort, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978), von Trotta has gone on to make important and controversial films—often collaborating with Barbara Sukowa.
