Jan Schütte on AllMovie

Having begun his filmmaking career making documentaries, it is not surprising that director Jan Schutte's fictional features are realistic and centered on current social issues. Schutte emerged as a documentary director in 1982 after a liberal arts background in college. His documentary credits include Verloren in Amerika and Nach Patagonien. He made an auspicious feature-film debut with Drachenfutter/Dragonfood (1987), the story of a Pakistani immigrant struggling to survive in a multicultural German neighborhood. It won three major awards, the Premio Cinecritica, the German Film Critics' Prize and the Prix Francois Truffaut. Schutte's third feature Auf Wiedersehen Amerika/Goodbye America (1994) was shown at Cannes. It also received a German Film Prize in Silver and Bavarian Film Prize. In 1997, he released Fette Welt/Fat World, a tragicomic look at a homeless youth who discovers first love and is inspired to try to pull his life together.