talk
Udo-Kier-Special: Who was Udo Kier?
Talk with Voxi Bärenklau and Roberta Hofer
Moderation: Marian Wilhelm • Language: German • 60min
12.03.2026, 20:15 Leokino Reservations possible from 25.02. • Part of Udo-Kier-Special: Film+Talk
“In addition to being a fantastic actor, Udo Kier was also a great assistant director. In this role, he was always a real caretaker and good friend in his collaboration with the people who made him shine as a great world star.” (Voxi Bärenklau, Cinematography, TOD EINES WELTSTARS)
Before the talk: Tod eines Weltstars. Portrait Udo Kier (1992)
© Maksym
Voxi Bärenklau (*1960) lives and works as a visual artist in Vienna and Berlin. Immediately after graduating from high school, he initially worked as a painter and sculptor of kinetic sculptures with a synesthetic focus.
From 1984 to 1990, he studied film at the Offenbach University of Art and Design under experimental filmmakers Werner Nekes and Helmut Herbst. Since 1989, he has worked as a cinematographer in cinema and television productions for directors such as Helge Schneider, Christoph Schlingensief, Uli Lommel, and Adolf Winkelmann.
From his first shoot in 1987 for Christoph Schlingensief until the latter’s death in 2010, he was his constant companion and close artistic collaborator. In 1999, he worked as gaffer for Michael and Florian Ballhaus on Martin Scorsese’s GANGS OF NEW YORK at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Schlingensief’s ATTA ATTA at the Volksbühne Berlin in 2000 was his first work as lighting and video designer for a theater production.
Roberta Hofer (*1986) is a journalist at ORF Tirol and previously worked as a freelance culture editor at FREIRAD Freies Radio Innsbruck and as a film scholar at the University of Innsbruck.
She has co-organized several film festivals in Innsbruck in the past and is considered a great connoisseur and lover of Udo Kier’s cinematic work. In 2014, she received the Best Student Paper Award from the University of Innsbruck for her research on the unfinished film project Dimension (1991–2024) by Danish director Lars von Trier, in which Kier also starred as the lead actor. In her thesis, she examined the figure of the human marionette in selected contemporary films.
In 2019, Roberta Hofer was awarded the Adult Education Radio Prize in the culture category. She is currently working on the completion of a picture book dedicated to Kier’s numerous film deaths, the first version of which she personally presented to Udo Kier in 2018 as part of the SLASH Film Festival.