München – Director Peter Lilienthal is dead. According to his caregiver, he died peacefully on Friday in a nursing home in Munich, where he last lived. Lilienthal was 95 years old. He is known for his award-winning films such as the trilogy “La Victoria” (1973), “All Quiet” (1976) and “Insurrection” (1980).
Lilienthal received the Golden Bear at the 1979 Berlinale for David. His story about a father and his mentally handicapped son “The Poet’s Silence” earned him a gold film in 1987. In 2020 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Lilienthal was one of the co-founders of New German Cinema. With colleagues like Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, he rebelled against the “omnipotence of the producers and the heteronomy of the film industry”.
In his films, Lilienthal dealt, among other things, with the military dictatorships in Latin America and later also with the experiences of his Jewish descent.
