Actress Katharina Schüttler may look familiar to viewers of Channel 4’s The Promise. The British television series from 2011 featured the German actress alongside Claire Foy, before she went on to portray Queen Elizabeth II. But, lucky for us German language learners, Schüttler has a lengthy German language filmography. So, this month let’s queue up three films starring Katharina Schüttler that will give us a chance to practice German language!
About Katharina Schüttler
Katharina Schüttler was born in Cologne, West Germany on October 20th, 1979. Her calling for acting doesn’t fall far from the family tree. Schüttler’s father is an actor, director, and one-time theater director while her mother is a playwright. She studied acting at Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, a public university and the city’s second largest.
Schüttler is married to director Till Franzen and the couple has two children.
Sophiiiie!
In the award-winning 2002 film Sophiiiie!, Schüttler portrays the title role. Sophie is a 20-year-old woman who finds herself pregnant. It’s a situation that Sophie isn’t completely comfortable with and she isn’t sure what she wants. The young woman spends a night wandering the streets of Hamburg pondering her present and trying to determine what she wants for her future. The film also stars actor Robert Stadlober.
Es kommt der Tag
Schüttler portrays Alice in 2009’s Es kommt der Tag. Alice wants to track down her birth mother who, thirty years prior, gave her up for adoption as a child in order to go underground with a German leftist terrorist group. When she finds her mother, Judith, she has moved on and has an entirely new family and identity. Alice wants Judith to turn herself in for her earlier involvement. Judith doesn’t feel quite the same.
Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter (Generation War)
While HBO and the BBC seem to have cornered the market on high-quality television mini-series, German broadcaster ZDF has produced Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter. Known as Generation War internationally, the production is a three-part mini-series. The show follows the lives of a group of 20-something German friends as they navigate through a world centered on World War II.
Schüttler portrays Greta Müller, an aspiring singer who isn’t afraid to use her charms and Nazi officers to reach her dreams. But it’s her relationship with Viktor, who happens to be Jewish, that makes her question some of her choices.
The series also stars Volker Bruch, Tom Schilling, Miriam Stein, and Ludwig Trepte (who portrays Viktor) as members of the tightknit group of friends.
Practice practice practice! Discover other great German language actors and actresses previously featured.
Top photo by Mathias Bothor, courtesy of Players.
