Pary El-Qalqili was born in Berlin in 1982. She is a director and writer. Her first feature-length documentary film Schildkrötenwut was released in German cinemas in 2012 and won several awards at international festivals. She studied cultural studies at the European University Viadrina and spent a year abroad at the Universidad de Buenos Aires before starting her directing studies at the University of Television and Film Munich, where she graduated with the short film Zooland. For her cinematic work she received, among others, the scholarship of the Akademie der Künste, the Grenzgänger Stipendium of the Robert-Bosch-Stiftung, as well as the Künstlerinnenförderung Film/Video of the city of Berlin.