Juliane Block

Drawn to the dark side of human nature, Juliane Block's films have always taken inspiration from the horror, fantasy and thriller genres. From the violent underground world of Asian gangs ('Unsecured Loan', 2007, 'Emperor', 2008) to the psychological trauma of sexual abuse ('3 Lives', 2018 & '8 Remains', 2018), Block's unflinching visionary flair has made her an internationally recognized, award-winning filmmaker. Block grew up in Northern Germany and although she obtained a Masters in Design, an early fascination with make-up and prosthetics led her to experiment with making zombie masks. When she got an opportunity to work on Timo Rose's underground zombie feature 'Mutation' (1999), her fate was sealed. After spending six years in Asia, in which time she made nine shorts and the feature films 'Emperor' and mockumentary 'Kinks' (2011), ('Best Asian Comedy' winner at Australia's Colortape Film Festival), she returned to Germany to get involved in the multi-director project 'Train Station' (2015) a CollabFeature project which went on to win eight awards, including 'Best Feature' at the Los Angeles Diversity Festival and 'Best Feature' at the Kansas International Film Festival in 2016, as well as the Special Jury Award at the Film Fest Kosova. Recently Block has returned to her genre roots with psycho-sexual fantasy thriller '8 Remains' (2018), starring Maja-Celiné Probst as a young girl facing up to her lover, who is also her killer. The talented Probst turns up again in Block's most recent film '3 Lives', in which Mhairi Calvey (star of Braveheart & Abduct), plays a kidnapped rape victim forced into a bizarre survival game to learn who her real enemy is. '3 Lives' was UK-financed and Block's close ties with producer Malcolm Winter will see her return to direct a family fantasy adventure film, 'Lyra's Wish: Saving Santa', in which a little girl takes it upon herself to save Santa from extinction. Future plans include adapting a German children's book, which would be the first German film she's directed. She also has her eye on a Sci-Fi Action adventure called 'Foster' and 'The Fall of Men', a more hard-core Sci-Fi thriller.