The Locarno Film Festival, held in the picturesque town in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, always shines with new and established art-house films. It showcases Swiss films that deserve the audience’s attention.
This will be the case again during the Locarno 77 Film Festival, which takes place from 7 to 17 August, and soon after, Switzerland also takes center stage at the 2024 Cannes Film Market, where the Alpine country is the guest of honor country.
Swiss food in Locarno this year includes Cannes favorites at Laetitia Dosch dog on trialand Swiss animator Claude Barras’ barbarianscreening in the Piazza Grande lineup alongside the world premiere of Swiss director Simon Jaquemet’s film electric childrenthe international premiere of American-Swiss filmmaker Freddy MacDonald suture tear and the Swiss premiere of Swiss-Peruvian filmmaker Klaudia Reynicke The Queen.
Meanwhile, Locarno’s international competition includes participation from Switzerland sparrow in fireplace (sparrow in chimney) from Ramon Sucher. There is greater Swiss involvement elsewhere in the programme.
Importantly, Locarno will also once again screen “Swiss Panorama,” which, as the festival website explains, “presents 10 current Swiss films, such as festival successes, audience favorites, and films yet to come The films shown in theaters are selected by a committee composed of representatives of the Solothurn Film Festival, the Swiss Film Institute and the Swiss Film Association.
Locarno organizers promise: “Film lovers from all over the world can experience contemporary Swiss cinema through a carefully selected selection of important films at the Locarno Film Festival.”
So if you want to avoid Swiss cheese holes in your Locarno schedule and ensure at least a bit of Swiss bliss, check out THRBelow we take a look at seven Swiss films screened at Locarno77.
Mountain Ride-Giant Tour (Mountain Ride)directed by Dominique Margot, part of Swiss Panorama
What’s more Swiss than snow-capped mountains? Well, in the age of peak climate change tourism, this may have to be rewritten as “It’s not always the snowy mountains.”
The nature and environment documentary has been distributed in Switzerland and Germany, with global sales handled by Maximage. The film premiered at the Solothurner Filmtage in Switzerland in January and was subsequently presented at the DOK.fest München in Munich in May this year.
“After many years of mass tourism in the Alps, a rethinking is slowly taking place,” the film’s description emphasizes. “Whether they are researchers, artists or philosophers: many are trying to approach the nature of mountains in new ways. They reflect what is different at this critical moment, when we need to redefine the values we have learned and actively seek change Methods.
Margot is best known as a documentary filmmaker. Her previous films include the 2020 film zoom circus (“With the COVID-19 pandemic, circus artists have lost their jobs, shows have been canceled and many companies have gone bankrupt, including the famous Cirque du Soleil. Via Zoom or Skype, they share their daily lives with us) and 2016 Looks like my motherThe film follows the filmmaker’s journey as the daughter of a depressed mother and confronting her fear of inheriting it.
sparrow in fireplace (sparrow in chimney)directed by Ramon Zürcher, international competition
The German-language film’s cast, distributed worldwide by Cercamon, includes Maren Eggert (i am your man) as Karen and Britta Hammerstein as Jules (Baader-Meinhof complex) and Andreas Deller (Everything is silent on the Western Front) such as Marcus et al.
Screenwriter, director and editor: Zürcher (girl and spider, strange kitten), the filmmaker’s latest appears to follow a similar formula to his previous feature films with brother Sylvain, which took place within the confines of an apartment. It also continues his series of films that include animals.
“Karen and Marcus live with their children in Karen’s childhood home, located in the countryside. On Marcus’ birthday, Karen’s sister Jules arrives with her family,” according to the plot description. So far, so good, but let’s get started. “The sisters are complete opposites in personality. Haunted by memories of his late mother, Jules feels motivated to challenge Karen’s authority. As the house fills up, Karen’s tension grows until everything Explodes into a raging inferno that destroys the old to make way for the new.
It all sounds like the perfect setup for the unique Zurich narrative language for which the filmmakers have earned a reputation. For his new film, he was also responsible for the sound design together with Peter von Siebenthal.
Watch the film trailer on the Locarno Film Festival website: https://www.locarnofestival.ch/festival/program/film.html?fid=3a8f7337-5417-4c9f-ab47-d74dea3ba071&eid=
Queens (Queens Borough)directed by Klaudia Reynicke, program Piazza Grande
If the title sounds familiar, you’ve probably heard of the film, which is the director’s third feature. It premiered in the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition in January before being selected for Berlin in February. International Film Festival’s “Generation” section film festival. There, it won the Kplus Times Award for Best Film.
Set during the tumultuous times of 1992 Lima, Peru, this family drama tells the story of two teenage sisters who are about to leave their country forever, but unexpectedly reconnect with their missing father. THRReviews called it “a low-key portrait of a Peruvian family amid political turmoil.”
Directed and co-written by Renick, the film stars Jimena Lindo, Gonzalo Molina, Luana Vega, Abril Djurinovic and Suzy Sanchez. The filmmaker has become a regular visitor to Locarno. her debut novel bird’s nest (2016) participated in Locarno, her follow-up competition love me tenderly (2019) also released.
Landscape and Furydirected by Nicole Vögele, part Panoroma Suisse
If the enticing title of Vogler’s documentary doesn’t draw you in, perhaps its subject matter, a tension-ridden borderland, will.
Explore in depth the border region between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where you can see large forests and small villages along the 932-kilometer-long border. After all, Vogler spent years there observing how the past, including the wars in the former Yugoslavia (1991-2001) and Bosnia (1992-1995), still affects the present.
“A cinematic essay centered on the Bosnian-Croatian border region near Veliky Kladusa that explores issues of displacement, violence, and everyday life and coincidence,” the film’s description says of the result. “It’s about torn scars, awakened memories of war, and profound encounters between people. A kaleidoscope of landscapes and rage.”
Taskovski Films is handling worldwide sales rights for the latest film from Vögele, who studied journalism and documentary filmmaking. Her first feature film in 2018 Closing time, premiered in Locarno and received the Special Jury Prize at the Cineasti del Presente competition. “Mr. Guo and his wife Mrs. Lin cook for the city’s sleepless people. They work all night and sleep during the day, like many others in noisy Taipei,” its description states. “Until one morning, Mr. Guo was riding back from the market and took another exit of the highway.”
Hanamidirected by Denise Fernandes, part of the Concorso Cineasti del Presente (focusing on the first and second feature films)
Fernandez is a writer and director who was born in Lisbon in 1990 to Cape Verdean parents and grew up in Switzerland.
Her debut feature is a Swiss, Portuguese and Cape Verdean co-production co-written with Telmo Churro, with global sales handled by Alina Film. The film, which had its world premiere in Locarno, stars Yuta Nakano, Alice da Luz, Sanaya Andrade and Nana Rodriguez.
“Hanami”
Courtesy of Locarno Film Festival
The story goes like this: “On a remote volcanic island where everyone wants to leave, little Nana learns to stay. Her mother Nia went into exile after she was born, and Nana lives in Growing up in her father’s family. One day, the family learned that Nia was ill…and was sent to the foot of the volcano for treatment, where she encountered a world full of magical realism between dreams and reality. Later, when Nana was a teenager, her mother Nia finally returned to the island.
Hearingsdirected by Lisa Gerig, part of “Swiss Panorama”
The documentary, with global sales handled by Rise and Shine World Sales, won awards at the Solothurner Filmtage and Swiss Film Awards earlier this year, and won the 2024 Best Documentary Award.
The film takes us inside the experiences of four rejected asylum seekers who “relive the hearings about why they fled their home countries,” a description that hints at the doctor’s emotional dimension. “Can interviewees describe their traumatic experiences in a way that meets official standards? The film provides the first insight into such sensitive hearings, questioning the asylum process itself.
Hearings This is the debut feature-length documentary by Grieg, who studied film in Zurich and Geneva, majoring in editing. But the topic is not new to her. After all, Grieg’s thesis film has been described as “an extremely subjective look at the conditions of detainees in a deportation detention center in Zurich.”
blackbird blackbird blackberrydirected by Elene Naveriani, part of Swiss Panorama
Speaking of Swiss Film Award winners…Georgian-born but now Swiss-based Navigliani also brought her previous films, wet sandHeading to Locarno in 2021, it was a huge success at this year’s major Swiss film awards.
blackbird blackbird blackberryHer drama, about a single woman in her 40s living in a small Georgia town whose extramarital affair triggers an existential awakening, won best feature, best screenplay and Best Editing and other honors. It also won the top prize for Best Film at the 2023 Sarajevo International Film Festival. In addition, star Eka Chavleishvili also received the honor of Best Actress at the festival.
The Swiss-Georgian co-production, which the director co-wrote with several other directors, has been sold to several European countries, with Totem Films handling global sales. But “Locarno 77” will give moviegoers another chance to see this film and more great Swiss films.
