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Director, writer, producer (* August 11, 1954, Ludwigshafen – † September 11, 2022, Unterdießen)
"Roland Reber's films represent a rare form of independent cinema in the international film scene." (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Fritz Göttler)
Roland Reber was a lifelong writer, actor, and director—a rebel, dreamer, and visionary.
He began composing poems, essays, and plays early on. After two years training as a nurse, he enrolled at Bochum Drama School in 1976, studying acting under Peter Zadek and dedicating more time to writing. His performances included roles at Schauspielhaus Bochum, in Essen under Hansgünther Heyme, and in Düsseldorf, Lünen, Kingston/Jamaica. He also appeared in the SDR series Die kleine Heimat alongside Hanns Dieter Hüsch and toured German-speaking countries interpreting Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo.
In his debut feature film You Have Bent My Soul Like a Beautiful Dancer (1979), Reber cast both professional actors, including ensemble members from Schauspielhaus Bochum, and gifted amateurs. The script served as a guideline, with the entire team contributing to its development—a principle he upheld across all his theater, film, and literary projects.
In 1980, Reber directed his play allsam at Hamburg’s Curio House, a raw relationship drama that stirred controversy for its candid and intense depiction of sexuality and violent fantasies: "Ecstasy, tenderness, and cruelty" (Hamburger Morgenpost). Opinions varied from seeing it as pathological to recognizing it as profound drama. From this emerged the Theater Pathology Institute (TPI): "Just as corpses are examined in pathology to uncover causes of suffering, the Theater Pathology Institute aims to expose society's and theater's ailments." (Roland Reber)
The TPI, later renamed the Theater Institute (TI), maintained permanent venues at Künstlerforumschulenburg in Hattingen and, from 1985, at Heinz Hilpert Theater in Lünen.
From the late 1980s, Reber worked and traveled extensively in Egypt, Mexico, India, and especially Jamaica, both professionally and personally. In 1989, the TI evolved into the World Theater Project (WTP), collaborating with German, Russian, Caribbean, and Mexican UNESCO Commissions as part of the United Nations World Decade for Cultural Development. The ensemble featured artists from Jamaica, Germany, India, and other countries who co-created and performed plays with Reber, fostering theater as dialogue. He also taught acting and directing in Moscow, New Delhi, Cairo, and the Caribbean.
Around the turn of the millennium, Reber refocused on film, founding the artist collective wtp-kollektiv—a dynamic team responsible for the film production company wtp international GmbH and wtp-verlag, always maintaining independence to preserve creative freedom.
With several feature films completed, Reber toured the world attending international film festivals, engaging in audience discussions and workshops about his films and his collaborative, independent filmmaking approach. He earned six international directing awards and served as a jury member at the Cairo, Alexandria, Sitges (Spain), Fantasporto (Portugal), and Dhaka (Bangladesh) Film Festivals. Between 2003 and 2007, he was Germany’s official representative to the Cairo International Film Festival and Europe’s general representative to the Damascus International Film Festival.
Reber held a special bond with Hof. In October 1986, he presented allsam at Hofer Herbst. Nearly two decades later, he became a regular guest at the Hof Film Festival, engaging passionately with audiences—even after a 2015 stroke left him wheelchair-bound. Following his passing, the Hof Film Festival 2022 honored him and the wtp-kollektiv with a tribute to this "exceptional artist" and "life rebel." The retrospective was a heartfelt farewell to Roland and a send-off for the collective, which led discussions with audiences and showcased new projects. Though Roland was central to the wtp collective, it continues to create new films and books.
He did not live to see his final works published; Reber passed away in 2022, one day before his multimedia book psst... Gedichte . Gedanken . Geschichten—his most personal work, a distillation of his artistic journey—went to print. His words and ideas endure.
Roland Reber on filmmaking: "We are not a company that produces films; we are filmmakers. For me, it's a creative adventure and a holistic process—one that’s enjoyable. I’m not a taskmaster telling actors or crew how to behave. I see myself as a conductor coordinating soloists into a harmonious orchestra. That’s teamwork to me; these aren’t 'my' films, but 'our' films."
"Nowadays, nearly every topic is ignored by the media: you get married on TV, cook, search for partners, remodel homes, save animals—everything becomes a multimedia spectacle, everything staged. The current media landscape mirrors our own lives, which everyone stages not according to their needs, but for maximum viewer impact or ratings. I only consider a film’s meaning once it’s in theaters and I discuss it with audiences. A predefined interpretation would deprive both film and viewer of the chance to explore their own thoughts. I see my style of cinema as a journey of the mind that provokes reflection."
"Our working method is defined by the absence of a fixed method. I refuse to confine myself to a rigid framework. When we do interviews or speak publicly, it might seem like a stylistic device or dogma—but it’s not. I’m always surprised that the films get completed. I wonder what they will look like and ask myself how it happened. That’s how we work—without rules. Creativity, perhaps. But that’s part of any filmmaking. At least, it should be.
