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"Dominik Graf is – internationally speaking – the least known master of modern German-language cinema, most probably because the vast majority of his massive and varied oeuvre was produced for television. Over the course of his career Graf has directed almost 80 works of various lengths and genres – feature films, TV movies, episodes for various series, as well as contributions to omnibus films – of which only ten were made for theatrical release. Among the theatrical films, only THE CAT (1987) was a major success with critics and audiences alike, while his made-for-TV works consistently win him awards and attract extraordinary ratings.
"Graf’s contributions to long-running German TV series like “Tatort” (2017’s THE RED SHADOW) and “Polizeiruf 110” (2014’s SMOKE ON THE WATER), as well as television films like COLD SPRING (2004), THE VOW (2007) or TWILIGHT ETERNAL (2016), not only redefined their genres but invariably broke new ground in terms of aesthetics as well as content. Of equal importance is Graf’s role as arguably the most alert and provocative chronicler of West German (FRG) history: THE INVINCIBLES (1994) was already, in its original version, one of the most bitter essays on the FRG’s existential malaise, but in its brand-new Extended Version (2019) it has become an all-out condemnation of a nation at war with itself; while CITY FOR RANSOM (2006) represents a blistering exposé of what the FRG did to and with the one-time-GDR and its citizens.
"Graf’s works are unlike anything else in the cinematic landscape: they’re films that simultaneously dare to be genre fodder, disturbing probes into the darker recesses of the human soul, devastating denunciations of German life and politics, and journeys to the outer bounds of storytelling, as well as experiments with the materials of cinema/television itself. Anthology is overjoyed to present the first extensive retrospective devoted to Graf’s body of work to take place in the United States."