Einar Schleef – Ich habe kein Deutschland gefunden

Einar Schleef – No Germany Did I Find

Forum 2026

“There have only been two geniuses in Germany since the war, Fassbinder in the West and Schleef in the East,” remarked Elfriede Jelinek. When Einar Schleef died far too early in 2001 at the age of 57, he was alone, with the public only finding out about his death days later. How is it possible that this painter, author and pioneer of German theatre direction in the East, later in the West and finally in the reunified Germany – at once recognised and unappreciated, celebrated and misjudged, resolute and misunderstood – remained such a perpetual outsider? The elliptically edited archive material lets Schleef have his own say above all – mercurial, stuttering, unflinching. Sandra Prechtel’s film carefully avoids glorifying or co-opting this 20^th century artist, who refused any sort of mass psychology and pushed theatre to its outer reaches. By highlighting different biographical elements, this portrait of a combative, yet vulnerable loner and enfant terrible with self-destructive potential is gradually pieced together. It is an account of theatre and the suppression mechanisms of post-war society and of the two German realities – but not as we are used to seeing them.

by Sandra Prechtel (Director, Screenplay)
with Einar Schleef Germany 2026 German 92' Colour & Black/White World premiere | Documentary form

With

Einar Schleef

Crew

Director	Sandra Prechtel
Screenplay	Sandra Prechtel
Editing	Olaf Voigtländer, Katja Dringenberg
Music	Samuel Wiese, Marie-Claire Schlameus
Sound Design	Rainer Gerlach
Producers	Frieder Schlaich, Irene von Alberti

Produced by

Filmgalerie 451

Berlin, Germany

World Sales

Filmgalerie 451

Berlin, Germany

Photos

Sandra Prechtel

Sandra Prechtel was born in Munich in 1969 and has lived in Berlin since 1991. She studied comparative literature, film studies and political science in Munich, London and Berlin. After her studies, she went to Moscow for a working stay, and later interned in the culture department of SFB/rbb. She is a writer and director of documentary films and radio pieces as well as an author, and has screened her films at international film festivals.

Filmography

2004 ND - Deutsches Neuland; documentary 2007 Sportsfreund Lötzsch; documentary, co-directed by Sascha Hilpert 2010 Die Ballkönigin; short documentary 2013 Roland Klick – The Heart Is a Hungry Hunter; documentary, Berlinale Panorama 2013 2018 Jazz oder die Lehre vom Fliegen; documentary 2022 Liebe Angst; documentary 2026 Einar Schleef – Ich habe kein Deutschland gefunden (Einar Schleef – No Germany Did I Find); documenary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2026