New Swiss Documentaries - Spring 2015

D O C S

S P R I N G

TEAM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DOCS SPRING 2015

Selina Willemse Head of Festivals & Markets swillemse@swissfilms.ch T +41 79 286 51 88

Aida Suljicic International Relations and Programme Curator asuljicic@swissfilms.ch T +41 77 431 87 79

Swiss Docs Spring 2015 Completed – Feature Length

3

Completed – Medium Length

16

Completed – Shorts

17

Coming Soon

19

Festival Favourites

25

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

A German Youth Une jeunesse allemande

Jean-Gabriel Périot

France / Switzerland / Germany 2015, 94 min.

Original languages: German/French Production: Local Films, Paris Alina film Sarl, Geneva Blinker Filmproduktion, Cologne World Sales: Films Boutique, Berlin T + 49 30 69 53 78 50 www.filmsboutique.com Festivals (selection): Berlinale 2015 Cinéma du Réel Paris 2015 BAFICI Buenos Aires 2015 Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 DOK.fest Munich 2015

The documentary tells the history of the Red Army Faction as well as the images generated by this story. The film, entirely produced by editing visual and sound footage, aims to question viewers on the significance of this revolutionary movement during its time, as well as its resonance for today’s society.

"An intriguing archival assembly that revisits German

left-wing radicalism. ... This densely layered documentary reveals how members of a disillusioned post-war generation gradually transformed into left-wing militants ... Essential for anyone interested in cinema and politics."

Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter, 12.02.2015

3

* 1974 in France. Works as a filmmaker with a personal approach on archival editing. Between documentary, animation and experimental, most of his works deal with violence and history. His films have been screened worldwide in numerous festivals and were honoured with many prizes.

COMPLETED

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Above and Below Nicolas Steiner

* 1984 in Sitten, Switzerland. 2005 – 06 attends the European Film College in Denmark. 2007 – 14 studies directing at the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg, Ludwigsburg. 2010 – 11 Fulbright Fellow at San Francisco Art Institute. 2014 Valais Canton’s Artist in Residence in Brooklyn, NYC. His short IT'S ME HELMUT was shown at over 240 festivals. His first documentary BATTLE OF THE QUEENS (2011) premiered at the Berlinale.

Far, far away and out of sight, that’s where April, Dave, Cindy, Rick and the Godfather are creating life on their own terms. From the depths of the flood channels under Sin City, to a reclaimed military bunker in the middle of the dusty, heated Californian nowhere land, to beyond the stratosphere where Mars now lives on earth.

Each individual has been flung into periling circumstances on this rollercoaster ride called life.

Through the hustle, pain, and laughter, we are whisked away to an unfamiliar world where we discover its inhabitants to be souls not unlike www.aboveandbelowfilm.com our very own.

"An intriguing and absorbing delve into almost alien parts of the United States." Mark Adams, Screen International (UK) 29.01.2015

4

Switzerland / Germany 2015, 118 min.

Original language: English Production: maximage GmbH, Zurich Flying Moon Filmproduktion, Berlin SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen ZDF/3sat World Rights: maximage GmbH, Zurich T +41 44 274 88 66 www.maximage.ch Festivals (selection) International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015 Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken 2015 BAFICI Buenos Aires 2015 Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 Toronto Hot Docs 2015

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

Andermatt – Global Village Leonidas Bieri

Switzerland 2015, 90 min.

Original languages: Swiss-German/German Production: DOCMINE Productions, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: DOCMINE Productions, Zurich T +41 44 269 62 80 www.docmine.com Festival: DOK.fest Munich 2015 (World premiere)

An Egyptian billionaire buys a valley in the heart of Switzerland. The villagers, affected by migration, are hoping for investments and better times. Stubborn farmers are charmingly displaced, then the excavator arrives and stomps a luxury resort for the international jetset out of the ground. This is the story of Andermatt, a village in crisis, awakened from its slumber by a kiss from the multi-billion investor Samih Sawiris, who transforms home and hope into tradable goods.

5

* 1980 in Zurich. Studied History and Geography in Bern, Communication Studies and Journalism in Fribourg. 2006 Audio­ visual studies at Schule für Gestaltung Bern. Since 2012 teaches History and General Education. ANDERMATT – GLOBAL VILLAGE, a long-term study, is Leonidas Bieri’s first feature length documentary.

Over the course of six years Bieri observed and captured the Swiss mountain village in transition.

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

(be)longing Volta à terra

João Pedro Plácido

* 1979 in Lisbon, Portugal. He began directing and shooting music videos at 19, and later attended the School of Theatre and Film (Lisbon) and the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen (Babelsberg).

João Pedro Plácido has been working in features, shorts, documentaries and commercials all around the world since 2000, since 2009 as a cinematographer.

His work has received national and international awards. (BE)LONGING is his first film as a director.

The story of an endangered community: farmers who practice subsistence farming in a mountainous village of northern Portugal, deserted because of emigration. Between the evocation of the past and their uncertain future, we follow the 49 inhabitants through four seasons. Among the inhabitants is António – a former emigrant who fulfilled his dream of returning home – who prepares the village festivities for the coming summer, and Daniel, a young shepherd who dreams of love at dusk.

6

Portugal / Switzerland / France 2014, 85 min.

Original language: Portuguese Production: O Som e a Fúria, Lisbon Close Up Films, Geneva Les films de l‘air, Paris RTP Radio e televisão de Portugal World Rights: O Som e a Fúria, Lisbon T +351 21 358 25 18 www.osomeafuria.com Festivals (selection): Doclisboa 2014 Porto Post Doc Film & Media Festival 2014 Visions du Réel Nyon 2015

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

Brother's Body

Body (le corps du frère) David Nicolas Parel

Switzerland 2015, 87 min.

Original language: French Production: PS.Productions, Châtel-St-Denis RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Rights: PS.Productions, Châtel-St-Denis T +41 21 922 03 72 www.ps-productions.ch

At 25 years of age, the director’s brother is about to become the champion of an unrecognised and often maligned sport: Bodybuilding. It was the director himself, who passed on this vocation to this brother Gary. And now he feels bad, because of the dangers this sport implicates.

By accompanying Gary – as well as four other close competitors – David Nicolas Parel unveils the complexity of their relationship.

Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere)

7

* 1979 in Annecy, France. Joint Swiss and French citizenship. 1992 – 96 Studies Marke­­ting & Management at the HEC (Hautes Études Commerciales), Lausanne. 2001 – 06 lives in Paris and works as assistant cinematographer. Parel worked as night security guard, fitness receptionist, cinema journalist, sex-shop salesperson, film festival selector, script writer and photo­ grapher. He is now preparing a photo exhi­ bition on amateur body­building. BROTHER'S BODY is his first feature length documentary.

COMPLETED

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Dirty Gold War Daniel Schweizer

* 1959 in Geneva. The award winning documentary filmmaker is known for his trilogy on right-wing extremism SKINHEAD ATTITUDE (2003), SKIN OR DIE (2003) and WHITE TERROR (2005). Schweizer attended ESAV (École Supérieure d’Art Visuel) in Geneva and ESEC (École Supérieure d’Études Cinématographiques) in Paris. 1983 – 93 worked for Radio Télé­vision Suisse (RTS), since 1993 as independent director and producer.

A fable about the gold industry, an excursion behind the scenes of this very prosperous sector. On one end of the spectrum, there are the sparkling displays in jewellery shop windows and the luxury industry itself, on the other end there is the condition of those damned by dirty gold, from the Indians to the activists who fight against this obscure cartel. A film that transforms the viewer’s perspective about this business and makes a contribution to the necessary discussion in favour of more ethically responsible gold.

8

Switzerland 2015, 84 min.

Original languages: French/English/ Portuguese/Spanish Production and World Rights: Rita Productions, Geneva T +41 22 775 15 50 www.ritaproductions.com Festival: FIFDH International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights Geneva 2015 (World premiere)

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

Grozny Blues Nicola Bellucci

Switzerland 2015, 103 min.

Original languages: Russian/Chechen Production: Soap Factory GmbH, Basel SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: Soap Factory GmbH, Basel T +41 61 632 00 50 www.soapfactory.ch Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere)

The story of four women friends who fight for human rights in Chechnya under the most difficult conditions. The film reveales their fears and dreams, their stories of love and forced marriages and shows the effects of the govern­ ment’s repression felt on a day-to-day basis.

By coupling the personal and intimate with the political, the filmmaker illustrates the daily lives of independent and involved women in an Islamic society.

9

* 1963 in Arezzo, Italy. Studies Philosophy, Literature and Film at the Università degli Studi in Florence. 1988 receives diploma from the Istituto di scienze cine­ mato­grafiche in Florence. 1992 – 96 works as filmmaker and cameraman in Italy.

1996 moves to Switzerland, where he works as cameraman and sound engineer.

Bellucci’s award winning feature film IN THE GARDEN OF SOUNDS was screened at numerous festivals worldwide.

COMPLETED

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Horizontes Eileen Hofer

* 1976 in Zurich. 2001 receives postgraduate degree in History of Cinema.

Since 2005 works as freelance journal­ist, photographer and filmmaker. Her short films ROOTS (2008) and THE MOURNING OR THE MERRY CROW (2009) were scree­ned at numerous festivals and re‑ ceived several awards. HE WAS A GIANT WITH BROWN EYES (2012), her first creative documentary, premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Run-down rehearsal rooms along the infamous halls of the Grand Theatre of Havana, Amanda and Viengsay dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to the demanding routine their discipline requires of them: that of classical ballet.

Their every step and aspiration echo the great achievements of their predecessor, Alicia Alonso, the prima ballerina assoluta, still invincible even at the grand age of 90. www.horizontes-film.ch

10

Switzerland 2015, 70 min.

Original language: Spanish Production and World Rights: Intermezzo Films SA, Geneva T +41 22 741 47 47 www.intermezzofilms.ch Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere)

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

Imagine Waking Up Tomorrow And All Music Has Disappeared Stefan Schwietert

Switzerland / Germany 2015, 86 min.

Original language: English Production: maximage GmbH, Zurich Flying Moon Filmproduktion, Berlin SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen WDR / ARTE World Rights: maximage GmbH, Zurich T +41 44 274 88 66 www.maximage.ch Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere)

Imagine waking up tomorrow morning and all music has disappeared. Just like that. What will remain when it is all gone: CDs, iPods, instruments? When we don’t know anymore what it was: music? He shows it to us: Bill Drummond, the man who with The KLF once conquered the world of pop. An anarchic spirit, an eternal punk who now leads the largest choir of the world: The17, an ever changing ensemble of amateurs with no sheets of music and no rehearsals. The film accompanies Drummond as he finds new voices for his choir: in the open fields or in a factory, in a class room or in a pub. It is a journey to point zero of music. So we can innocently invent it again. Together, in this moment.

11

* 1961 in Esslingen, Germany. Grew up in Switzerland. Works as producer and director in Switzerland and Berlin.

His award-winning documentaries such as BALKAN MELODIE (2012), ECHOES OF HOME (2007), ACCORDION TRIBE (2004) and THE DEVIL’S ACCORDION (2000) mostly focus on musical topics and are being screened at prestigious international film festivals.

COMPLETED

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Muchachas Juliana Fanjul

The death of her grandmother brought the filmmaker Juliana Fanjul back to Mexico City, where her eyes were opened as to how unfair their relationship with the maids had been. Looking back she asks herself to what extent she was also responsible for the invisibility of these women, who had always lived around her. * 1981 in Mexico. Received BA in Visual Communication. She continued studying in Cuba in the Documentary Department of the International Cinema and TV School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV).

2012 – 2014 MA in Cinema Studies in Switzerland at ECAL (École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne) and HEAD (Haute École d’Art et Design, Genève). Fanjul worked for Al Jazeera English and for Radiotelevisione Svizzera (RSI).

Switzerland 2015, 63 min.

Original language: Spanish Production: Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse occidentale (HES-SO ECAL/HEAD), Renens World Rights: École Cantonale d‘Art de Lausanne T +41 21 316 99 33 jean_guillaume.sonnier@ecal.ch Festivals (selection): Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 Riviera Maya Film Festival 2015 DOK.fest Munich 2015

12

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

Return To An Illusion Retour sur une illusion

Elena Hazanov / Claudio Recupero

Switzerland 2015, 73 min.

Original language: French Production and World Rights: Association Façonneurs de Mémoire, Grand Saconnex T +41 78 827 87 18 atelierfaconneursdememoire@gmail.com Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere)

Six Swiss high school students meet an elderly couple of Cambodians, who has survived the hellish nightmare of the Khmer Rouge regime and film their testimony. Closely accompanied by the filmmakers, the students get to know Ong Thong Hoeung and his wife Bounnie and understand how friendship and trust can become tools of the understanding of history.

Taking the audience on a journey from Brussels to Paris and then Phnom Penh, this documentary tells a touching and poignant story on how to preserve memory.

Elena Hazanov: * 1977 in Moscow, Russia.

Since 1989 lives in Switzerland. Works as author and director in Geneva. Her second feature THE TRANSLATOR (2006), a SwissRussian coproduction, premiered at the Festival del Film Locarno and competed at the Festivals in Munich and Edingburgh.

Claudio Recupero: * 1965 in Geneva.

Studied History at the University of Geneva. Works as history teacher at College Sismondi, Geneva.

13

COMPLETED

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The Pawn La prenda

Jean-Cosme Delaloye

* 1975 in Monthey. Works as a journalist and director in New York, specializing in documentaries and radio reportages about Central America. In his previous feature film BY MY SIDE (2012) he followed Dominga, Fabiola and Maryuri, three young women struggling to survive in the Chureca, the largest landfill in Central America located in Nicaragua.

Karin Gramajo’s life changed brutally when her teenage cousin was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in Guatemala. She decided to become a lawyer. Astrid was kidnapped and raped at the age of 14. She fled to the U.S. where she overcame her fear to speak out about her past.

THE PAWN is a documentary about two women fighting to end impunity in Guatemala, where a child is kidnapped every day.

Switzerland 2015, 78 min.

Original languages: Spanish/English Production: Tipi‘mages Productions sàrl, Geneva RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Sales: CAT&Docs, Paris T + 33 1 44 59 63 53 www.catndocs.com

www.laprenda-thefilm.com

Festivals (selection): Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara 2015 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2015 Hot Docs Toronto 2015

14

COMPLETED

F E AT U R E L E N G T H

Wild Women – Gentle Beasts Anka Schmid

Switzerland 2015, 96 min.

Original languages: German/French/Russian/Arabic Production: RECK Filmproduktion GmbH, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR ARTE RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Rights: RECK Filmproduktion GmbH T +41 44 241 37 63 www.reckfilm.ch

Female animal tamers from various continents shine in the spotlight and struggle for their existence behind the scenes. Between toiling and smiling, the circus artists disclose their passion for their "wild" animals and extraordinary profession: a daily life full of dedication and discipline in the midst of mortal danger. * 1961 in Zurich. Attended DFFB (Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie, Berlin).

Since 1990 she works as an independent filmmaker and video artist; Schmid also teaches film and animation. Her latest film AGAINST ALL ODDS (2011), a long-term documentation of three teenage mothers, was screened at the Berlinale. Schmid is also known for her films ISA HESSERABINOVITCH – THE MOVIE GAME (2009) and YELLOW – ELECTROPOP MADE IN SWITZERLAND (2005).

Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere)

15

COMPLETED

COMPLETED

MEDIUM LENGTH

MEDIUM LENGTH

Ella Maillart – Double Journey

Gangbé!

Mariann Lewinsky / Antonio Bigini

Arnaud Robert

Switzerland / Italy | 2015 | 40 min.

Original language: French

Switzerland | 2015 | 58 min.

Original languages: French/English/Fon/Yoruba

Production and World Rights: Mariann Lewinsky, Zurich mstraeuli@bluewin.ch Antonio Bigini, Bologna antonio.bigini@gmail.com Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere) Summer 1939: Ella Maillart and Annemarie Schwarzenbach leave Europe for Asia. Ella hopes to make a film, and help Annemarie get off drugs. In Kabul she realizes she’s lost all certainties. Alone she travels in British India while war ravages Europe. Her texts, film footage and photographs tell the story of a journey, a film, a year, a woman.

Production and World Rights: Intermezzo Films SA, Geneva T +41 22 741 47 47, www.intermezzofilms.ch Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere) Gangbé! tells of the clash between two Africas. In this long journey to the metropolis, the adventures of a continent are revealed; the new cultural poles of the South and the gaps that still sep­ arate these neighboring countries. In encounters with Femi Kuti and the contemporary ideals of Pan-Africanism, the Gangbé Brass Band find themselves immersed in a world of new ideas.

Gangbé! tells the story of a different Africa, one that no longer solely aspires to the European dream. In a poetic and funky fashion, it opens up new horizons. www.gangbe-film.ch

16

COMPLETED

SHORTS

Black Cloud Nuvem negra

Kacey Mottet Klein, Birth of an Actor

Pedro M, 1981

Ursula Meier

Andreas Fontana

Switzerland, 2014, 19 min.

Original languages: Portuguese/Creole

Switzerland, 2015, 14 min.

Original language: French

Switzerland / Spain, 2015, 27 min.

Original language: Spanish

Production and World Rights: Andrea Bellini, Geneva T +41 22 329 18 42 Festival: Int’l Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2015 (World premiere) The world of the favela Reboleira is coming to an end. A motorway project is threat­ ening this little village in the heart of Lisbon. Alternating documentary segments on the local history with narratives by various inhabitants, the film captures a vulnerable way of life, in danger of imminent disappearance.

Production: Milos-Films SA, Neuchâtel La Lanterne Magique, Neuchâtel RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Rights: Milos-Films SA, Neuchâtel T +41 76 365 98 87 milosfilms@gmail.com Festivals (selection): Berlinale 2015, Int’l Documentary Human Rights Film Kiev 2015, Indie Lisboa 2015 8 years. 12 years. 15 years old. A body is grow­­‑ ing and developing in front of the camera.

A body that through the years abandons itself to the character, transforming what could be seen as simple (children's) playacting into the true work of an actor.

Watch online: www.swissfilms.ch/shortfilmlibrary

Production: Terrain Vague, Lausanne Laissez-faire, Madrid World Rights: Terrain Vague, Lausanne T +41 78 815 78 87 www.terrainvague.ch Festival: Visions du Réel Nyon 2015 (World premiere) Madrid. A woman is tracking down the fa­­t­her she never knew. Pedro Martin, a Spanish cameraman, filmed the attempted coup d’état, in the parliament on February 23, 1981. In search of her father, the ca­ meraman’s daughter meets people who are haunted by images of the past. Sometimes, historical archives can hide an intimate tragedy.

Basil Da Cunha

Kacey Mottet Klein, naissance d’un acteur

17

COMPLETED

SHORTS

The Breath De Schnuuf

The Disappearance of the Aïtus La disparition des Aïtus

Through The Ages – A Glacier Performance

Fabian Kaiser

Pauline Julier

Jan-Eric Mack

Switzerland, 2014. 11 min.

Original language: without dialogue

Switzerland, 2014, 35 min.

Original language: French

Switzerland, 2014, 19 min.

Original language: Swiss-German

Production and World Rights: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHdK, Zurich T +41 43 446 31 12, film.info@zhdk.ch www.zhdk.ch Festivals (selection): Shnit Bern 2014, Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2014, IDFA Amsterdam 2014, ClermontFerrand Int’l Short Film Festival 2015, DOK. fest Munich 2015 Surveillance cameras track the descent of the action force. There’s a burning sensation in one’s head. Cramped quarters puts pressure on the chest. In the vacuum of depth, delusion pulsates. Is the gear leakproof? What colour is fear?

Watch online: www.swissfilms.ch/shortfilmlibrary

Production and World Rights: Le Poulpe, Geneva T +41 76 615 76 79 association.le.poulpe@hotmail.com Festivals: BIM Geneva 2015 Int’l Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2015 A poetic essay about Tuvalu, a micro-state in the South Pacific that is threatened by rising sea levels. An analogy between the vanishing of the country itself and of its inhabitants’ imaginaries. A metaphoric fable about the electrical modernization of the country. And scientific information about waves and stories.

Production and World Rights: Jan-Eric Mack, Winterthur T +41 76 379 50 70, jan-eric@gmx.ch Festival: Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2014 (World premiere) On a Swiss glacier at more than 2700 me­­­ters above sea level stands a gigantic snow and ice sculpture. 1500 square meters were covered with a special protective fabric. Within only six weeks the unprotected surface of the glacier melted over two meters. Left was a smooth, geometric form in the middle of the wild structures in the Alps.

Watch online: www.swissfilms.ch/shortfilmlibrary

Watch online: www.swissfilms.ch/shortfilmlibrary

18

Wandelzeit – Eine Gletscherperformance

COMING SOON

EXPECTED FALL 2015

About Heaven Fragments du paradis

Stéphane Goël

Switzerland, 90 min.

Original languages: French/German Production: Climage, Lausanne RTS Radio Télévision Suisse World Rights: Climage, Lausanne T +41 21 648 35 61 www.climage.ch

If Switzerland is sometimes perceived as heaven on earth, the question that follows is: do its inhabitants believe in heaven? Believers, agnostics and atheists all feel the need for a narrative when confronting death. So, what is left of paradise, which once promised eternal happiness? Encountering people in the twilight of their years, this film offers a moving, offbeat and personal quest within the depictions of this place common to all of humanity, faced with hope and shared doubt.

19

* 1965 in Lausanne. Studied and worked in New York City between 1987 and 1993.

Directed several artistic and experimental videos before moving on to full-fledged documentaries. In 1985 he joined the procducer's association Climage, to which also Fernand Melgar belongs.

He works as an independent producer and filmmaker in Lausanne.

COMING SOON

EXPECTED 2015

Citizen Khodorkovsky Eric Bergkraut

A businessman is sent to prison by President Putin. While ten years in the Russian penal colony have marked Mikhail Khodorkovsky, his spirit has not been broken. He leaves prison as a man with stronger inner freedom than ever before – and he is prepared to realize his vision, an open Russia. * 1957 in Paris. Lives in Switzerland since 1961, where he first studied acting at the Theatre Academy of Zurich. In 1991 Bergkraut started making documentary films. After COCA, THE DOVE FROM CHECHNYA (2005), awarded with the International Human Rights Film Award Berlin 2006, and LETTER TO ANNA (2008), a personal investigation on Anna Politkovskaja’s death, honoured with the Vaclav Havel Award 2008, CITIZEN KHODORKOVSKY is Bergkraut’s third film on Russia.

20

Switzerland, 87 min.

Original languages: English/French/Russian Production: p.s. 72 productions GmbH, Zurich SRG SSR/SRF 3sat World Sales: Autlook Filmsales, Vienna Tel +43 720 34 69 34 www.autlookfilms.com

COMING SOON

EXPECTED FALL 2015

Dürrenmatt Sabine Gisiger

Switzerland, 90 min.

Original languages: Swiss-German / German Production and World Rights: Das Kollektiv für audiovisuelle Werke GmbH, Zurich T +41 43 811 50 50 www.daskollektiv.ch

An intimate portrayal and cinematic memorial to the man, writer and painter Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The film shows how he interwove his life’s motifs and his diagnoses of mankind through his world-famous plays and novels which are more than ever topical today. For Dürrenmatt humor was the only way to gain distance from a world he found hardly bearable and often hard to ­endure. He himself claimed that he never fell into desperation as he was always inspired by the good, the evil and the lunacy of the world.

But his sister and children know him from a different side. For the first time they speak out about what fuelled the passionate thinker at heart.

21

* 1959 in Zurich. 1980 – 87 studies History at University of Zurich and University of Pisa.

Since 1990 freelance TV journalist and documentary filmmaker. Since 2002 Gisiger has been teaching as lecturer on documentary films at the ZHdK (Zurich Univer­‑ sity of the Arts) and at the Lucerne School of Art & Design. Gisiger's latest film YALOM'S CURE (2014) was an international box office success. It will be theatrically released in more than 15 countries.

COMING SOON

EXPECTED SUMMER 2015

The Chinese Recipe Copy and Create Das chinesische Rezept: Kopieren und Kreieren

Jürg Neuenschwander

* 1953 in Signau, Switzerland. 1978 Founding member of Container TV, a production company for film and television in Bern.

Since 1984 works as an independent filmmaker. 1999 – 2008 Founder and Head of the MediaLab at Bern University of the Arts. Lecturer of film and audiovisual design. Since 2009 Visiting Professor at the Tongji University in Shanghai. Lives in Bern and Shanghai.

Happy Buying Electronics, Xiaohui Zhou’s company, seeks construction plans on the Internet and high-end components in rubbish dumps to build audio systems "better than the original".

The deals made between the Swiss Bühler machine manufacturing company and its Chinese imitator Baolong are based on the philosophy of collaboration instead of suing for breach of copy­right. A start-up team of drone designers become globally connected and throw themselves into new adventures. The film portrays day-to-day stories following the Chinese recipe of non-stop progress: use what has already been invented, develop it further, let your competitors copy it and then integrate their innovations into your own product. www.thechineserecipe-movie.com 22

Switzerland, 95 min.

Original languages: Mandarin/English/ Swiss-German Production: Container TV, AG für Filmund Fernsehproduktion, Bern SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: Container TV, AG für Filmund Fernsehproduktion, Bern T +41 31 371 10 42 www.container-tv.com

COMING SOON

EXPECTED SUMMER 2015

The Best Or Nothing

A Film About Love (working title) The Best Or Nothing Ein Film über die Liebe (Arbeitstitel)

Kaspar Kasics

Switzerland, 105 min.

Original languages: German/French/Russian/English Production: Distant Lights GmbH, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: Distant Lights GmbH, Zurich T +41 44 363 82 03 www.distantlights.ch

Two couples, two contradictory stories: first love and last love. One based on internet and taking place in the Ukraine, the other based on a common dream in Portland, Oregon. However, the perceptive Eva Illouz and the hopeless roman­­tic Sven Hillenkamp are deciphering the utopian character of love, which the two couples are fighting with everything they’ve got …

23

* 1952 in Interlaken. Studied Music at the Conservatory in Basel and Zurich as well as German and Philosophy at the University of Zurich. Since 1990 workes as an independent author, director and producer. He is known for his own stirring documentaries such as CLOSED COUNTRY (1999), BLUE END (2000) and DOWNTOWN SWITZERLAND (2004) and for the renowned documentary film NO MORE SMOKE SIGNALS (2008), as producer, editor and dramatic adviser.

COMING SOON

EXPECTED SUMMER 2015

The Day The Sun Fell Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel Aya Domenig

* 1972 in Japan. Joint Swiss and Japanese citizenship. Studied Ethnology, Film Studies and Japanese at Universities in Zurich and Tokyo. Later attends the Film and Video Department of the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Works as an editor, author and director.

THE DAY THE SUN FELL is her first feature length documentary film.

While tracing the story of her grandfather, who worked as a young doctor in a Red Cross hospital in Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb, the director meets a former doctor and a nurse who went through something similar.

Throughout his life, her grandfather never spoke about what he had experienced, but her prota足 gonists bring her closer to him. When a new nuclear disaster occurs in Fukushima on March 11, 2011, her quest takes a new turn.

24

Switzerland / Finland, 90 min.

Original languages: German/French/Japanese/English Production: ican films gmbh, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen YLE Finnish Broadcasting Company World Rights: ican films gmbh, Zurich T +41 44 252 33 59 www.ican-films.com

FESTIVAL FAVOURITES

Children Of The Arctic

Dark Star – HR Giger’s World Dark Star – HR Gigers Welt

Nick Brandestini

Belinda Sallin

Switzerland, 2014, 75 min.

Original language: English

Switzerland, 2014, 94 min.

Original language: English

Switzerland, 2014, 95 min., Original languages: Swiss-German/German/English

Production: Intermezzo Films SA, Geneva RTS Radio Télévision Suisse SRG SSR, ARTE World Rights: Intermezzo Films SA, Geneva T +41 22 741 47 47 www.intermezzofilms.ch Festivals (selection): Festival del film Locarno 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015, BAFICI Buenos Aires 2015 Seven Americans unfold how the nearby US-Mexican border transforms their lives.

Out in the desert they observe the haunting traces left by the crossing migrants, people they never come face to face with. They con­fide their fear, defiance and at times even their compassion. www.brokenland.ch

Production: Envi Films AG, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Rights: Envi Films AG, Zurich T +41 44 252 00 77 www.envifilms.com Festivals (selection): Zurich Film Festival 2014 Santa Barbara Int. Film Festival 2015, Cinequest San Jose 2015

Production: T&C Film AG, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, SRG SSR, Lucky Film, Zurich World Sales: T&C Edition AG, Zurich T +41 44 208 99 55 | www.tcfilm.ch Festivals (selection): Zurich Film Festival 2014, Istanbul Independent Film Festival 2015, Hong Kong International Film Festival 2015 DOK.fest Munich 2015 Who is the artist HR Giger? What kind of person is behind such terrifying and disturbing yet aesthetic forms and beings?

A film with and about the acclaimed and controversial painter, sculptor, architect, designer, Oscar winner and Alien creator. www.darkstar-movie.com

Broken Land Stéphanie Barbey / Luc Peter Artistic collaboration: Peter Mettler

At the Arctic edge of America, five Native Alaskan teenagers strive to be both modern American kids and the inheritors of an endangered whaling culture. www.childrenofthearctic.com

25

FESTIVAL FAVOURITES

Electroboy

Freefalling – A Love Story

Iraqi Odyssey

Marcel Gisler

Mirjam von Arx

Samir

Switzerland, 2014, 113 min.

Original languages: Swiss-German/English

Switzerland / Germany, 2014, 83 min.

Original languages: Swiss-German/English

Switzerland / Germany / UAE / Iraq 2014, 162 min., 3D, Original languages: German/English/French/Arabic

Production: Langfilm/Bernard Lang AG, Freienstein SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen World Sales: Picture Tree International GmbH, Berlin T +49 30 42 08 24 80 www.picturetree-international.com Festivals (selection): Festival del film Locarno 2014 DOK.fest Munich 2015 Trials and tribulations in the life and family history of Florian Burkhardt, who abandoned the constraints of his background to set out into the world in search of fame and recognition. His quest is a mercurial search for identity that ends in fear and disillusionment but also in a return to his true self. www.electroboy.de

Production: ican films gmbh, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRG SSR, BR Bayerischer Rundfunk, ARTE World Rights: ican films gmbh, Zurich T +41 44 252 33 59 | www.ican-films.com Festivals (selection): Zurich Film Festival 2014 DOK.fest Munich 2015 Two days before Herbert and Mirjam, the dir­ector of the film, became a couple, she is diagnosed with cancer. Three months later, Herbert is dead. He was a base jum­ per. Why does he gamble his life away, while she fights for hers? A personal emotional film, in which the director searches for answers in the Swiss Death Valley. www.freefalling-film.com

Production: Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion AG, Zurich Coin Film, Cologne, SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, WDR Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Sanad Fund, Abu Dhabi, Furat al Jamil, Baghdad World Sales: Autlook Filmsales GmbH, Vienna T +43 720 34 69 34 I www.autlookfilms.com Festivals (selection): Toronto International Film Festival 2014 Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2014, Berlinale 2015 Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir pays homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by dictatorship, war and occupation. www.iraqiodyssey.com

Freifall – Eine Liebesgeschichte

26

FESTIVAL FAVOURITES

Master And Vassal Padrone e sotto

Spartans Spartiates

The Shelter L‘abri

Michele Cirigliano

Nicolas Wadimoff

Fernand Melgar

Switzerland, 2014, 72 min.

Original language: Italian

Switzerland / France, 2014, 80 min.

Original language: French

Switzerland, 2014, 101 min.

Original language: French

Production: Mira Film GmbH, Zurich SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera ZHdK Zürcher Hochschule der Künste World Rights: Mira Film GmbH, Zurich T +41 43 960 36 84 | www.mirafilm.ch Festivals (selection): Zurich Film Festival 2014, DOK Leipzig 2014 Duisburger Filmwoche 2014, Crossing Europe Linz 2015, DOK.fest Munich 2015 In a small, shabby bar in the south of Italy a group of older men plays their beloved drinking game called “Padrone e sotto”.

While the beer flows and the emotions run high, the director tries to remember what used to confuse him about this game when he was as a child: Where exactly is the line between game and reality?

Production: Akka Films, Geneva Alegria Productions, Paris SRG SSR World Sales: Doc & Film International, Paris T +33 1 42 77 56 87 www.docandfilm.com Festivals (selection): RIDM Montreal 2014, BAFICI Buenos Aires 2015, Visions du Réel Nyon 2015

Production: Fernand Melgar, Lausanne RTS Radio Télévision Suisse SRG SSR World Sales: CAT&Docs, Paris T +33 1 44 59 63 53 www.catndocs.com Festivals (selection): Festival del film Locarno 2014, DOK Leipzig 2014, Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla 2014, DOK.fest Munich 2015 It is winter at an emergency shelter for the homeless in Lausanne. Every night at the door of this little-known basement facility the same entry ritual takes place. Those on duty at the shelter have the difficult task of "triaging the poor". Only 50 "cho­­­ sen ones" are admitted inside. www.abri-lefilm.com

Yvan Sorel runs a Mixed Martial Arts club in Marseille’s "Quartier nord", a district known in the media for its drug trafficking and gang shootings. Day after day with no support from the state, he fights to keep the children and teenagers on the "right" path. A powerful film about violence, education, moral values, faith and dignity.

27

+++ Visit us at our stands at the Cannes Village International, Festival del film Locarno,

Toronto International Film Festival and at the EFM during Berlinale +++

SWISS FILMS Neugasse 6 | Postfach | CH-8031 Zurich T +41 43 211 40 50 info @ swissfilms.ch www.swissfilms.ch