Edgar Hagen studied and graduated in Philosophy and German Literature at Free University Berlin. Since 1989 he realized a couple of short documentaries, from 1990 on based in his hometown Basel in Switzerland. His first feature documentary Markus Jura Suisse – The Prodigal Son premiered in 1996 at Visions du Réel and Locarno International Film Festival. Since then he realised five more feature documentaries, 2001 Zeit der Titanen / Time of the Titans (International Premiere DokFest Munich), 2007 Someone Beside You – If You Have a Mind You Can Lose It (DokFest Munich, Docs Against Gravity, Warsaw), 2013 Journey to the Safest Place on Earth  (Dok Leipzig), 2019 Who Are We? (IDFA). Since 2010 he was for ten years board member of the Swiss Filmmakers Association and 2013 – 2022 Head of Directing Documentaries at Focal, the Swiss National audiovisual training program. In 2016 he founded the production company Vollbild Film GmbH. The Roots of Madness had its first pitch at Visions du Réel 2018 and was selected for dok.incubator international 2024.