Peter Nestler

Peter Nestler

Peter Nestler, born in Freiburg im Breisgau on 1 June 1937, is one of the most unique and important documentary filmmakers to emerge from post-war Germany. In the early 1960s, Nestler made a series of poetic films about the changing realities of rural, industrial and working-class communities, mostly in Germany but also in other countries. Opposition to his political views and film aesthetics led Nestler to Sweden, where he worked mainly for television. Since the 1970s, Nestler has made an extraordinary body of work, expanding the form and themes of his early films to include history, the working class, anti-fascism, the history of labour and production, and immigration. His most recent work, Unrecht und Widerstand (2021/2022), which won the prestigious Grimme Prize, focuses on the various forms of resistance by German Sinti and Roma over eight decades.