Sacha Polak (born 1982) is a Dutch film director.

Career

In 2012 Polak's feature film debut ''Hemel'' played at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Additionally her short ''Brother'' and her step-mother

Meral Uslu Meral is a common Turkish given name and Altai name. It is a variant of Maral. In Altai, Turkish and Mongolian "Maral" means "female deer". Meral has the same meaning as "Maral". It is also used as a surname. People Given name * Meral Akşener (b ...

's film on which she was a script supervisor, all played at the festival as well. In 2014 Polak was initially going to direct the film '' Vita & Virginia'' about the love-affair between

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Woolf was born i ...

and

Vita Sackville-West Victoria Mary, Lady Nicolson, CH (née Sackville-West; 9 March 1892 – 2 June 1962), usually known as Vita Sackville-West, was an English author and garden designer. Sackville-West was a successful novelist, poet and journalist, as wel ...

but was she replaced by

Chanya Button Chanya Joyce Dorothy Button (born on 25 December 1986) is an English director and screenwriter. After studying at RADA and learning the ropes in the assistant directors' department on the ''Harry Potter'' franchise, she directed two feature ...

. In 2015 Polak's second film ''Zurich'' played at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. Polak's next feature film was the movie '' Dirty God'' about a woman who sustained facial burns after an acid attack by her ex-partner. This film won her the

Golden Calf According to the Bible, the golden calf (עֵגֶל הַזָּהָב '' ‘ēgel hazzāhāv'') was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as ''ḥēṭə’ hā‘ēgel'' ...

award for best direction at the 2019 Netherlands Film Festival. The lead actress in the film,

Vicky Knight Vicky Knight (also previously known as Vicky Chaundy) is an English film actress and hospital healthcare assistant. She has starred in ''Too Ugly For Love'' (2014) and ''Dirty God'' (2019). Knight debuted as an actress from Sacha Polak's ''Dirt ...

, won a BAFTA Breakthrough Brits award for new talent at the 2019 British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards.

Personal life

Polak's mother died of

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

11 months after she was born. Director

is her step-mother.

Filmography

*'' Hemel'' (2012) *''Zurich'' (2015) * '' Dirty God'' (2019) * ''Hanna'' (2019-2021) * '' Silver Haze'' (2023)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Polak, Sacha Living people Dutch women film directors 1982 births