Rainer Matsutani

Fantastic horror and thriller films make up the majority of director Rainer Matsutani's repertoire. Born in Germany to a Japanese father and German mother, he grew up watching horror films. As a young adult he studied at the Berlin Script Workshop and entered Munich's Academy for Television and Film in 1988. He wrote and directed his first short film, "Klinik des Grauens," for which he received a Best New Director award at the Hof International Film Festival. Matsutani's next project was directing and writing "Nur ber Meine Leiche," a well received comedic fantasy about murder and a dysfunctional couple. The film received six awards, most notably from the Bavarian Film Festival and the German Film Awards. This opened new doors for him, and he went on to direct several science fiction and horror television series, such as "Lexx" and "Feuerläufer--Der Fluch des Vulkans." He returned to cinema with "666: In Bed With the Devil," a dark comedy about a cab driver. Unlike his previous projects, the film was panned by critics. In 2006, he expanded his creative boundaries by directing crime thrillers for television, including "Tatort" and "SOKO Stuttgart," two of the longest-running detective series to have been broadcast in Europe.