Tarek Ehlail

Tarek Ehlail (31 August 1981 – 29 August 2025) was a German film director, screenwriter, and film producer.

Tarek Ehlail
Ehlail in 2019
Born	(1981-08-31)31 August 1981 Homburg, Saarland, Germany
Died	29 August 2025(2025-08-29) (aged 43) Bundesautobahn 1, near Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Occupation(s)	Film director, producer, screenwriter

Background

Ehlail, son of a Palestinian father and German mother, became a punk as a teenager^[1] and worked for about 10 years as body piercer.^[2] In 2003 he started the production company Sabotakt which produced mainly special underground projects and independent films.^[3] Together with Matthias Lange, Ehlail founded the first German 'Punkfightclub', the Sabotakt Boxparty, a punk and martial arts event which toured through Europe.^[4]

Ehlail died in a traffic collision, on 29 August 2025, two days before his 44th birthday.^[5]

Work

In 2008 Ehlail produced together with Matthias Lange his debut film Chaostage - We are Punks! starring Ben Becker, Martin Semmelrogge, Ralf Richter, Stipe Erceg, Claude-Oliver Rudolph, Helge Schneider and Uwe Fellensiek. The Saarlandmedien supported in 2009 his cinema film Gegengerade [de] about the FC St. Pauli. The film cast included Mario Adorf, Moritz Bleibtreu and Fabian Busch^[6][7] and was selected into the competition at the 'Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis' in 2011.^[8] In 2011 and 2012 the documentaries Alles in Allem about a tour of the electro band Egotronic and GLAUBENSKRIEGER about the annual Internationale Soldatenwallfahrt to Lourdes were produced by Ehlail.

In March 2013, Ehlail published his first book Piercing is not a crime (Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf publisher). The book tells 33 anecdotes from the time when Ehlail worked as tattoo artist. The book cover shows him together with the tattoo model Lexy Hell.^[9]

Ehlail's film Volt, a science fiction drama, was filmed in 2015 as German-French co-production by augenschein-Filmproduktion and Les Films D’Antoine around Cologne and supported by the German Federal Film Board.^[10] The cast included Ayọ (Joy Ogunmakin), Benno Fürmann, Denis Moschitto and Stipe Erceg.^[11]

Filmography (selection)

Films

• Chaostage – We Are Punks! (2007/2008)
• Gegengerade [de] (2011)
• Volt (film) [de] (2016)

Documentaries

• Don't panic it's only war … (2003)
• Bonobo - Die Sabotakt Reise um die Welt (2004)
• Deutschlands Golden Boy (story of German boxer René Weller, 2005)
• Alles in Allem Egotronic Tourfilm (2011)
• GLAUBENSKRIEGER (2013)

Music videos

• Produzenten der Froide: R n R Schwindel (2008)
• Nyze feat. Bushido (2009)
• D-Bo: Frust (2009)
• Nyze: Easy (2009)
• D-Bo: Diskothek (2009)
• Kay One: Ich brech die Herzen (2010)
• Slime: Gewinnen werden immer wir (2010)
• Egotronic: Hamburg soll brennen (2010)
• Johnny Mauser: Die Mauer (2013)