Stefan Schwietert was born in 1961 and grew up in Therwil, Switzerland. He shot his first film, which focused on youth unrest in Switzerland at the time, as part of the Videogenossenschaft Basel collective. In 1981 he spent a year in Brazil where among other things he worked as an assistant director in the music-film department of TV Globo. In 1983 he spent a guest semester at the California Art Institute in San Franscisco, and from 1984 to1990 he was a student at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin. In 1991 Schwietert founded his production company Neapel Film . His films have been shown throughout the world and have been awarded several prizes. Throughout the last years retrospectives of his work have been shown in Berlin, Austria, South America and USA. Schwietert also teaches at different film schools and acts as dramatic adviser on film projects. He lives and works in Therwil and Berlin.