Lena Birkhold grew up in Germany where she studied political science and Arabic language. A university exchange in 2015 brought her to the south of France. She subsequently decided to settle in Marseille. It was in this Mediterranean city that she discovered her passion for cinema. Self-taught, she gained her first experience as a camerawoman on several documentary films. In 2023, she joined a professional audiovisual degree program at the University of Corte, Corsica, to perfect her skills in film making. “Avant que les feuilles ne tombent” (Before the Leaves Fall) is her first short fiction film, made during her studies in Corsica.