Critic and filmmaker Michael Althen dies

The internationally respected German film critic and filmmaker Michael Althen died in Berlin on Thursday at the age of 48. Since 1984, he had worked as a film critic for such publications as Die Zeit, Der Spiegel and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as writing several books on cinema.

As a filmmaker, Althen had co-directed, among others, the documentary Eye To Eye: All About German Film, a journey of discovery through over a century of German film, which was premiered at the 2008 Berlinale.