Hans Weingartner

Born: 1970
Where: Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, Austria

The writer and director attracted international acclaim for the 2005 political drama The Edukators.

He studied neurology at the University of Vienna before specialising in neurosurgery at the University of Berlin's Steglitz Clinic.

A formative experience was his arrest and handcuffing by German police after they stormed a Berlin squat where Weingartner was living.

During his medical studies, he also began working as a camera assistant and went on to study film-making at Cologne's Academy of Media Arts.

He made his feature debut in 2002 with White Noise, starring Daniel Bruhl as a young schizophrenic.

Bruhl - described by Weingartner as being "like Tom Hanks" - starred in his second feature, The Edukators.