Anne Thieme was born in the German Democratic Republic and grew up in a small town whose cinema was closed after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She toured the socialist bloc with a street theatre group, was a ballet dancer, and was a bassist in a punk band. Alongside jobs in the film industry across Latin America and Europe, she worked as a truck driver, was assistant to Volker Schlöndorff, and has taught screenwriting for the Rwanda Media Project. She studied Acting in Vienna and Film Directing and Screenwriting at the Universidad del Cine (UCINE) in Buenos Aires, the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (ESTC) in Lisbon, and the Film University Babelsberg. Her graduation film, Interstate 8, won the German Film Academy’s First Steps Award. Anne is an alumna of Berlinale Talents and the Apichatpong Weerasethakul Creators Lab in the Peruvian Amazon; the resulting film, It’s Easier to Dream of Her Alive, premiered at the Curta Cinema Festival in Rio de Janeiro. Her debut feature screenplay, Miami, won the Emden Screenplay Award.

Miami — After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Ela opened her tanning salon “Miami” in East Germany, dreaming of sun-kissed lands. Now, as her dream finally appears within reach, her estranged daughter returns, and she must weigh up her illusion of freedom with her longing to belong.