Katrin Laur, Estonian-German director and scriptwriter, born and raised in Tallinn, Estonia, studied directing at the Moscow Film Academy VGIK in the masterclass of the legendary Russian director Sergei Gerassimow from 1977 to 1982 . In 1982, she emigrated with her small daughter and her husband at the time, a Colombian filmmaker, to Germany.
She has lived in Munich, Berlin, Zurich and the Black Forest, and studied German literature at the Ludwig Maximilian University. She took part in the first German script consultant course (taught by Linda Seger at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg) in 1995, attended subsequent courses on scriptwriting and began writing screenplays.
She also works as a director and is interested in documentary and feature film.
Katrin Laur has also worked in Estonia since 2004, founding a production company in Tallinn that makes feature and documentary film. She lectured on dramaturgy at the Baltic Film and Media School at Tallinn University from 2008 to 2011 and has worked as a professor of scriptwriting at the KHM since 2011.
Laur has always written prose and published “Sõnad” (“words”), a volume of poetry, in Estonia in 1995. In recent years, writing fiction has become the focus of her creative output. She published her first novel in Estonia in 2017, based on a script she wrote in 2013.
Filmography (selection)
2011 - Roots: Hundred Years of War and Music, documentary film (58 min)
2011 - Surnuaiavahi tütar (Graveyard Keeper’s Daughter), feature film
2009 - Vasha (earlier “Baby and the Killer”), script: Katrin Laur and Mart Kivastik
2007 - The Poet and her Time, documentary film (90 min)
2006 - Ruudi, feature film
2003 - Geschlecht: weiblich, script: Katrin Laur
2002 - Die lange Reise des Reto Bantli, documentary film (52 min)
1988 - Revolution aus dem Salon, documentary film (45 min)
1982 - Kolm tundi rongi väljumiseni (Three Hours Until the Train Departs), feature film (30 min)
1981 - Armastuskiri (Love Letter), feature film (30 Min)
1979 – Heal järjel inimesed (Better People), feature film (30 Min)
