Randa Chahoud, daughter of a Syrian-German family, graduated in 2007 at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) as director and writer of the ZDF Sci-Fi series Iron Tichy: Raumpilot together with Oliver Jahn and Dennis Jacobsen. They were nominated for the First Steps Award 2007, won the German Television Award 2007 (Newcomer) and were nominated twice for the Grimme Award (2008 + 2012).
In 2017 Randa Chahoud directed the drama series Bruder – Schwarze Macho (D, ZDFNeo). In 2019, after directing the Tatort „Lakritz“ and achieving one of the highest ratings of the year with 12.87 million, she wrote and directed the English-language feature film The Accidental Rebel (D/GB). This movie had its world premiere at the 24th Busan International Film Festival 2019 and won the Best Young Actor and the Prize of the Youth Jury at the 41st Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis 2020. In addition, the film received Best Director, International Feature Film and Award of Excellence, International Feature Film at the Catalina Film Festival 2020.
In 2020, after Screendaily feature her as one of „Eight emerging German filmmakers to watch“, Randa Chahoud directed the Amazon Prime series Deutschland 89 (creator: Anna & Jörg Winger) and was nominated for Best Director at the 2021 German Television Awards along with Soleen Yusef.
2021 Randa Chahoud served as a director and creative producer on the legal drama series Legal Affairs which, aired in Dec 2021 (ARD). In 2022, Randa Chahoud directed the Disney+ series Deutsches Haus (showrunner: Annette Hess) which will air 15th of November 2023.
When did you know you wanted to be a director?
As far as I can remember, I decided to be a director when I was 8. I went with my school to a little cinema in Berlin to see the Swedish movie Ronja, The Robber’s Daughter. When the film was over, I was totally overwhelmed. The rebellious Ronja reminded me of my own secret desires to rebel. I was quite insecure at that age and seeing this movie encouraged me to overcome my shyness. I remember thinking: This is magical, I want to do this. I want to be a filmmaker. Can’t be so difficult, right?
Once you knew you wanted to pursue a career as a director, what where your first steps in achieving this goal?
Some years later (at the age of 14) I still naively believed becoming a director was the easiest thing in the world. I stepped into that same movie theatre and asked for a job. The owner was a nice elderly woman: she showed me the projection room and explained everything. From then on, I spent almost every day after school working as a projectionist. At the time, all the projectionists in Berlin had an agreement: We could enter every screening room in town for FREE. I started watching hundreds of films. Some of them, like When We Were Kings over 30 times. Over the years I developed my taste. I loved films that combined entertainment with a message. Regardless of the genre. Ang Lee movies in particular became one of my favourites.
When I turned 18, I bought myself my very first camera – a S-VHS Camcorder – and started shooting short films with some friends – mostly fairy tales. One of the shorts I submitted to the Berlin Film- and TV Academy (dffb), I passed the entrance exams.
Everything seemed so easy and clear… but at the film school things started getting complicated.
What obstacles or set backs did you face in becoming a director?
Our teachers were mostly focused on German Arthouse, which makes sense, because to get a foot into the German Film and TV Industry in the 90s, it was absolutely necessary to have arthouse credits.
However, I was interested in fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers and drama. I struggled a lot. I did a few awful arthouse exercises, but I wasn’t good at it. I felt uncomfortable and lonely. By chance, I met two other students who were also a little lost- and we co-founded a small company called Cosmic Colleagues. We co-wrote and co-directed two philosophical sci-fi shorts in the garage of the film school.
Unexpectedly, these shorts won some awards at festivals and got the attention of a TV editing commissioner (ZDF) who asked us if we’d be interested in creating a TV show based on these short films. Of course we were! In 2006 we created our first writers room and started “showrunning,” without knowing the term at that time. I remember people staring at us: Three people writing, directing and producing together? Where’s your boss? It was a little embarrassing to ask the broadcaster to put three directing and writing credits on every episode. This wasn’t usual at the time.
Finally, the show became a success. We won the Newcomers German Television Award, were nominated for the Grimme Award and the First Steps Award – and the DVD sales were very high.
We couldn’t be happier. Totally convinced this was our big breakthrough!
But our phones never rang. For over five years.
How did you develop your voice and hone your craft?
Working at night as a waitress and projectionist for a living (I was a mother of two then and needed to earn money) and writing screenplays in the morning at the public library, became my everyday life.
I had no plan B, still couldn’t imagine anything other than being a director. One beautiful thing that happened then was meeting my agent. A lovely and caring person with a lot of experience. She organised many job interviews for me, but I was continually rejected. The German Film market had no need for “crazy” sci-fi directors. She encouraged me to be patient.
I tried to and started studying again: Whenever I had a bit of money to spare, I bought books about screenwriting, directing and acting. I also worked as a camera operator in an acting studio in order to observe acting classes. That was amazing: I learned many insightful acting/directing techniques, Stanislavski, Chubbuck and Meisner. I saw talented and established actors coming in and out and doing their exercises and showing their vulnerability in front of their colleagues and coaches. The money I earned in that studio, I reinvested in directing workshops to hone my own skills. At night, I downloaded all the international high end TV shows I could find on the internet, watched and analysed them. I also started to appreciate the magic of REAL life (seeing my kids grow up was such a pleasure). I was happy in a way.
And then, in 2016, all of a sudden – things started to change.
How did you get your first break?
More and more international High End Shows found their way to Germany. Producers started keeping an eye out for directors who were somehow “different” from the traditional TV market. And then, without having changed or done anything differently – my agent managed to get me noticed again.
In 2017, I had two big projects in front of me: A directing job for a very ambitious Thriller-Mini-Series for the broadcaster ZDFNeo and the job of writing and directing my own film, a war drama about the Syrian civil war.
Being back on a professional film set after such a long time was like breathing fresh air again.
The thriller series was positively received in the industry and the war drama The Accidental Rebel premiered 2019 in BUSAN, South Korea, went to many film festivals and won some prizes. I started working on bigger projects – f.i. the TV show Deutschland 89 and Legal Affairs. I was one of Screendaily’s “emerging filmmakers to watch in 2020” and was nominated for best directing at the GERMAN FILM AWARD in 2021. In 2022, I directed my first Disney+ show.
In May ’23 I left Germany with my family to live in France. I met two new agents in the UK, who are very inspiring. We’re discussing some new ideas for a possible international career.
Whatever comes next – I’m absolutely grateful for all that I’ve learned so far.
If you want to be a director: whatever happens, don’t take it personally, and – just keep going!
TV Credits: Iron Tichy: Raumpilot (2007), Bruder Schwarze Macht (2017), Tatort Lakritz (2019), The accidental Rebel (2020), Deutschland 89 (2020), Legal Affairs (2021).
Film Credits:
Photograph: Der Rebell