He was born in Zurich. In 1979, he entered the French cinema conservatoire in Paris and started as a film maker with documentaries. He directed his first feature film Wendel, shown in many festivals like Locarno and Montreal; it won the Max-Ophüls prize. In 1990, he won the special prize of the jury at the Strasbourg festival for his second feature film Dreissing Jahre, also shown in Locarno and in Berlin. Am Ende der Nacht is his third feature film.