Richter was born in Marburg and lived there until 1980, when he graduated (
Abitur) from the local
Elisabethschule. Wanting to pursue a film career, he worked as an intern for video productions and as an actor on stage. In 1982, he appeared as an
extra in
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's
Veronika Voss. A year later, he and actor Frank Röth produced their first film, ''
, which was released in 1985. Many TV films followed until 14 Days to Life'' was released in 1997, earning Richter favorable reviews. The 1999 film
After the Truth, a fictional account of an 80-year-old
Josef Mengele's trial before a German court, did not receive funding from the German film foundation due to its controversial theme. It was financed privately by lead actor
Götz George and others, and received a number of awards at film festivals. He also directed
Der Tunnel, a made-for-television movie loosely based on true events in
Berlin following the closing of the East German border in August 1961 and the subsequent construction of the
Berlin Wall. In 2003, Richter gave his English-language directing debut with the psychological thriller
The I Inside, starring
Ryan Phillippe and
Sarah Polley, which was compared to
Memento and
The Butterfly Effect. Another of Richter's projects was the television movie
Mogadischu, an account of the
hijacking of
Lufthansa Flight 181 in 1977 and its subsequent storming by the
GSG 9 counter-terrorism unit. == Filmography ==