Gertrud Pinkus (b. 1944) moved to filmmaking in 1971 after previously working in theatre as a set designer in Basel, Switzerland. She developed her filmmaking skills with the Scope-Film group in Frankfurt. She gained wider recognition with her first feature-length film, Il Valore della donna è il suo silenzio (1980), a multi-layered portrait of the realities of Italian immigrants in Frankfurt. The film was an immediate success, winning several awards, including the German Film Award and the Zurich Film Award. Its innovative approach uniquely blended elements of documentary and fiction. In 1991 she directed “Anna Göldin - Last witch” that won the Oecumenical Prize at Locarno Film Festival and the Public Award at the Max Ophüls Festival. After a time living in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico, Pinkus returned in 2005 to Switzerland and started creating installations and directing fiction films.