Hans Rolf Strobel is a German film director who has been making feature films since the late 1960s. He is best known for his highly stylized, psychological thrillers, such as The Ogre (1968), The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) and The Left-Handed Woman (1978).
Strobel was born in Berlin in 1945, and grew up in a small village near the Rhine. He studied literature and philosophy at the University of Berlin, before embarking on a career in theatre and television drama. In 1967 he made his feature film debut with The Ogre, a psychological thriller about a man who is haunted by the memory of a woman he once loved.
Strobel's second feature, The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, was released in 1975 and was a critical and commercial success. The film, adapted from a novel by Heinrich Boll, tells the story of a young woman whose life is ruined when she is falsely accused of being a terrorist. It won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and made Strobel a major figure in German cinema.
In 1978, Strobel directed The Left-Handed Woman, a romantic drama about a woman who is in love with a married man. The film was a huge success, and won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Strobel continued to make films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including the critically acclaimed The Silence (1989). He has also made several documentaries and television films, as well as writing and directing theatre productions.
In recent years, Strobel has returned to making feature films, with The Day I Was Not Born (2011) and The Tower (2012). Both films were well received at international film festivals, and Strobel won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for The Tower.
Hans Rolf Strobel is one of the most respected and acclaimed filmmakers in Germany. His films are known for their psychological depth and complex characters, and he has been an influential figure in the development of German cinema.
