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Volker Sattel, born in Speyer in 1970, studied directing and cinematography at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg from 1993 to 1999. After graduating, he began working as a freelance director and cinematographer. His documentary feature debut "Unternehmen Paradies" (2002), in which he observes the diverse facets of Berlin city life, premiered at the Duisburg Film Week. Together with director Mario Mentrup, he realized the experimental feature films "Stadt des Lichts" ("City of Light!", 2005), "ich begehre" ("I Do Adore", 2007) and "Der Adler ist fort" ("The Eagle Is Gone", 2010), on which Sattel also acted as director of photography.
A repeated collaboration also connects him with Stefanie Gaus. He was the director of photography for her documentary "Laufhaus" (2006), which deals with the sex trade industry by depicting the space of a brothel. Gaus, in turn, participated in Sattel's documentary "Unter Kontrolle" ("Under Control", 2011, also camera), about various sites of nuclear operations in Germany and Austria, as dramaturgical advisor. In light of the nuclear catastrophe in Japan in spring 2011, the film took on an unexpected and sad topicality. At the German Camera Award 2011, the visually idiosyncratic "Unter Kontrolle" was awarded in the documentary/docudrama category; at the Film+ festival, Sattel received the editing prize together with Stephan Krumbiegel. The Wiesbaden Film Rating Board (FBW) named "Unter Kontrolle" 'Documentary of the Month,' and it was nominated for Best Documentary at the German Film Critics' Award.
In 2013, Sattel and Gaus each received a scholarship from the Goethe-Institut to spend three months at Villa Kamogawa, Kyoto, Japan. There they realized "Beyond Metabolism", a look at the architectonically special Kyoto Congress Center and at the same time a reflection on congresses, architecture and translation, premiered at the Berlinale 2014 in the Forum Expanded section. Sattel's next directorial effort was "La Cupola" (2016), a portrait of a domed house without load-bearing walls that once belonged to actress Monica Vitti and director Michelangelo Antonioni. This film also premiered at Forum Expanded.
In addition to his own films, Sattel has repeatedly served as cinematographer on films by other directors, including the family drama "Karaman" (2012) set in Turkey, the documentary " Der Architekt Tadao Ando - Von der Leere zur Unendlichkeit" ("Tadao Ando: From Emptiness to Infinity", 2013), and several films by Stephan Geene: the relationship story "After Effect" (2006), the Kreuzberg youth and milieu study "umsonst" ("for nothing", 2014), and the documentary "SHAYNE" (2019), a portrait of the former pop star Ricky Shayne. Philip Scheffner's acclaimed feature film debut "Europe" (2022), about a woman from Algeria in France whose residence permit is not renewed after medical treatment, is another example.
At the Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland, Volker Sattel again presented his own film in April 2022: The documentary "Tara" (DE/IT 2022, directed together with Francesca Bertin) focused on the Apulian industrial city of Taranto with the river Tara, which is revered there as mythical.