- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday March 11 2008 12.10 GMT
Who is he?
Writer and director of A Necessary Death, which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival (otherwise known as SXSW) in Austin, Texas, on Saturday.
What's so interesting about him?
The movie, his feature debut, is a fake documentary about film-makers following a person about to commit suicide. Some viewers have been convinced it was a real documentary, and they haven't been at all happy about it. In Kosovo, the film nearly resulted in an angry mob baying for his blood. Stamm achieved this authenticity by putting his actors through intense improvisation sessions and springing surprises on them. The movie took several years to put together as cast members kept disappearing. His British lead actor's work visa ran out and he had to come home. His cinematographer, Zoltan Honti, went off to work on Woody Allen and Brian de Palma movies.
What's his most strongly-held opinion?
He's more a man of questions: "You have to come up with something new, something where people will go, 'ooh, no-one has gone there before.' But how do you do that because everything has already been done? You have to get more and more extreme. So how extreme should you get before you should stop yourself? If your project is going well should you stop because of moral issues? You're always looking for the biggest possible dilemma or conflict."
What's his background?
Stamm was born in Hamburg, but studied film directing at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He's made short films, a documentary on Nick Cave and a TV movie about "a moody scarecrow". He also claims to be a certified hypnotist.
What's next?
As well as trying to get distribution for A Necessary Death, Stamm is working on two new stories, one of which is an IRA story set in Belfast, where he spent time as a peace worker. The other is a whodunit.
Comparisons are odious, but ...
He's a big fan of Lars von Trier, and looks to be set on a similar course of high-wire cinematic provocation.
