Born in 1965 in Wiebaden, Romuald Karmakar never studied at a film school, but he started to make some films since 1985. In 1994, he founded his own production company Pantera Film and his first feature The Deathmaker(1995) became a sensation among film critics and audience. Manila received the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 2000. Karmakar is now known as one of the most controversial and aesthetically radical German filmmakers. In 2010, JIFF had a retrospective on his works.