Dirk Kummer (born 29 September 1966 in

Hennigsdorf Hennigsdorf () is a town in the district of Oberhavel, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north-west of Berlin, just across the city border, which is formed mainly by the Havel river. History The municipality shared its borders with the for ...

) is a German actor, director, and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. He is best known for directing movies ''Sugar Sand'' (2017), ''Wohin mit den Witwen'' (1999) and ''Rosenzweig's Freedom'' (1998).

Early life

Kummer first grew up in

Falkensee Falkensee is a town in the Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany. It is the most populated municipality of its district and it is situated at the western border of Berlin. History The commune Falkensee was formed in 1923 by the merger of Falk ...

and moved to

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

in 1973. He had his first acting role in 1979 aged 13, in the two-parter TV movie ''Meines Vaters Straßenbahn'' on the

Deutscher Fernsehfunk Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF; German for "German Television Broadcasting") was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) from 1952 to 1991. DFF produced free-to-air terrestrial television programmin ...

channel. After he had graduated from school in 1985, Kummer performed three years of

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft ( conscription). Some nations (e.g., Mexico) requ ...

with the border troops. Then from 1989 to 1992, he was a master student of the

Berlin Academy of Arts The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was ...

in the Performing Arts section. In parallel, he also studied between 1989 and 1990 as a guest at the

Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg The Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg (German: ''Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf'') is the oldest and largest film school in Germany. The university offers undergraduate, graduate, as well as post-graduate studies in all fields o ...

, specializing in directing and as a guest student at the state-run Berlin drama school Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. His first big movie role was in one of the last DEFA productions called ''

Coming Out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out ...

''. In addition to his involvement as one of the main actors in the role of 'Matthias', he worked in this production as assistant to director

Heiner Carow Heiner Carow (19 September 1929 – 1 February 1997) was a German film director and screenwriter. His 1986 film '' So Many Dreams'' was entered into the 37th Berlin International Film Festival. The following year, he was a member of the jury at ...

. The premiere of the film took place on the evening of the

fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of ...

(9 November 1989), at the East Berlin premiere at

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today it is a protected ...

. In 1992, Kummer went to Switzerland and took acting classes there for one year at the University of Music and Performing Arts Bern (now part of

University of the Arts Bern __NOTOC__ The University of the Arts Bern (german: Hochschule der Künste Bern) is an art school with locations in Bern and Biel/Bienne. It was created in 2003 from the merger of the University of Music and Theatre and the School of Design, Art an ...

). From 1993 to 2002, he worked only sporadically as an actor and mainly as a directing assistant among others with Konrad Sabrautzky, (''

Mein Leben & Ich ' 'My Life & Me''is a German sitcom produced by Sony Pictures in association with RTL Television. Original ran was from September 14, 2001 to December 20, 2009. The series, which was created by Paula A. Roth and directed by , is loosely based o ...

''), Kaspar Heidelbach ('), Susanne Schneider (''The Day Will Come''), Anna Justice ('' Remembrance (2011)'') and Gunther Scholz. In 2002, he received an author scholarship from the Drehbuchwerkstatt Nürnberg and the

Bayerischer Rundfunk Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadca ...

. Since about 2003, Dirk Kummer works almost exclusively as a director and

scriptwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. T ...

. After stops in Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Berlin, he now resides again in Brandenburg. He has also directed plays at theatres including "Carl's Work - Part 1" (in 2014) and "The Abolition of the Night" (in 2015) at

Schauspiel Köln Schauspiel Köln is a theatre and company in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It forms together with the Cologne Opera and other houses the Bühnen der Stadt Köln (Stages of the city of Cologne). The listed building has 830 seats in th ...

. His short film ''Zuckersand'' was awarded the 'Bernd Burgemeister Fernsehpreis' at the 2017

Munich Film Festival Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, the

3sat In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies ...

Audience Award at the 2010 Baden-Baden TV Film Festival and the Grimme Prize in 2018. His

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of ha ...

for the film was awarded a prize in 2003, the Thomas Strittmatter Award.

Filmography

Actor

Director

References

External links

*
Dirk Kummer (professional website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kummer, Dirk 1966 births Living people Film people from Brandenburg German male actors German gay actors People from Oberhavel 21st-century German LGBT people