Xavier Koller

Xavier Koller (born 17 June 1944, Schwyz, Switzerland) is a Swiss film director and screenwriter. He is most known for his work on the Disney live action film Squanto: A Warrior's Tale, an adventure historical fiction film based on the life of Squanto, and his film Journey of Hope, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990.^[1]

Xavier Koller
Xavier Koller (holding the Oscar statuette)
Born	(1944-06-17) 17 June 1944 (age 81) Schwyz, Switzerland
Education	Academy of Drama, Zurich, Switzerland
Occupation	Filmmaker
Years active	1972–present

Early life

After graduating from high school, Koller first went through a four-year apprenticeship as a precision toolmaker and then, after three years of training at the Academy of Drama in Zurich, Switzerland, graduated as an actor/director. The next several years he spent acting and directing at German and Swiss theatres. He did a number of TV-plays as an actor, directed commercials, acted in movies, and then started to write and direct feature films.

Film career

Awards and accolades

Filmography

• Hannibal (1972) (director, screenplay)
• Mädchen, die am Wege liegen (1976) (director: additional scenes)
• Trilogie 1848: Der Galgensteiger (1979) (director, writer) (TV film)
• The Frozen Heart (Das gefrorene Herz) (1979) (director, screenplay)
• Tanner (Der schwarze Tanner) (1985) (director, writer)
• Journey of Hope (Reise der Hoffnung) (1990) (director, writer)
• Squanto: A Warrior's Tale (1994) (director)
• Gripsholm (2000) (director)
• Cowboy Up (2001) (director)
• Highway (de) (2002) (director, writer) (short film)
• Havarie (de) (2006) (director) (TV film)
• Someone Like Me (de) (2012) (director, writer)
• Die schwarzen Brüder (it) (2013) (director)
• Little Mountain Boy (de) (2015) (director, writer)