I grew up in a village near Celle, a small town between Hamburg and Hannover in Northern Germany. My mom sold make-up in evening parties to the neighborhood women, and I was allowed to play with the leftovers (eyeshadows and lipsticks in colors nobody wanted). I remember that I was playing with a girlfriend of mine – while she was trying to beautify herself, I just applied the make-up all over my face, trying to look as scary as possible. That pretty much set the path.

I continued to explore more options of SFX make-up by myself, mail-ordering the necessary tools and won local costume events with aging or zombie make-up. It never occurred to me though to pursue a professional career as make-up artist.

I always found Asia fascinating and decided to explore the other side of the world instead. I chose Hong Kong as start – one of the hubs for Asian movies. The movie world in Hong Kong, however, is very closed to people from the West and you need to speak Chinese fluently. I followed my boyfriend to Malaysia.

My first year in Kuala Lumpur was difficult. Even though in Malaysia English is widely spoken as a first language, I had trouble to find friends. I took this as an  opportunity – I decided enough of waiting for a job in the movie industry. I put up ads to search for cast and crew for the first short film I was going to direct myself (and I hoped to make some friends at the same time). The short film was based on a gangster short story by my brother. I loved it so I stayed in the genre. Last year I met Chee Hong at an independent filmmakers meeting. He was looking for a short film production where he can improve his skills as action director & choreographer, I was looking for a somebody who can improve the action in my films. A perfect match.

The hardest part of being a filmmaker… I guess is to accept the fact that you never will make the perfect movie. Therefore, you might as well go on and do what you want to do, make it as perfect as you can, but be sure there will always be room for improvement.

Difficult to say. I actually never think about what could have been. (I think it’s a waste of time.) Could I imagine a return to Germany in the future… I don’t know yet. I definitely want to make one or two movies in the next 5 years in Germany; however, I usually just plan a couple of months ahead and go where my movies will take me.

To be really honest, I wouldn’t say Malaysian cinema is that appealing. At least not to me. I love Hong Kong movies. In my opinion you almost never go wrong with Korean films and the Chinese industry is definitely getting strong.

Some of my favorites:

Bittersweet Life – an action drama about the downfall of a hitman (Korea)

The Good, the Bad, the Weird – a Kimchi Western (the Korean answer to the Italian Spaghetti Western) – damn funny.

Old Boy – one of the most twisted stories I’ve ever seen (Korea)

Public Enemy 3“- gangster action (Korea)

In the Mood for Love – Wong Kar Wai is certainly the master of beautiful images (Hong Kong)

Infernal Affairs I + II – much better than The Departed which is based on the Hong Kong original

Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon – Chinese epic

Ipman – one of the greatest Martial Arts movies (Hong Kong)

A Malaysian movie I really liked (and that might be about the only one -

Sell Out! – hard to classify… it’s a mix out of musical and drama.

I’m currently in the midst of editing my lastest feature KINKS – a comedy / mockumentary about two sisters brought up on different continents who clash over a reality TV shoot in Malaysia after years of separation – tentatively to be released in early 2011.

I’m working with different screenwriters on the scripts of two different features – a thriller drama about an Indian hitman (to be shot in India, Malaysia, and Indonesia) and a story about a young girl possessed by a demon who masters her split personality in the final end to become a super hero (set in Jakarta against the backdrop of Balinese black magic and heaps of action).

Besides that I am working on another short film – a Kung Fu – Bruce Lee spoof. Chee Hong and I explored funky action in Ramly at War Begins, serious action in Unsecured Loan II, now it’s time for comedy!