Born in Russia and grew up in Israel and Berlin. She studied directing and film production in Leeds (UK) and Cologne. She lives in Germany and works as a writer and director for fiction and documentary films. Since 2018 she has been working as a professor of film directing at ifs Cologne (International Film School Cologne) and teaches at other universities in Germany and abroad (Cisa Locarno, Filmuniversität Potsdam-Babelsberg, HFF München).