Karlovy Vary 2012: Switzerland present with thematically strong films

Four Swiss film productions and coproductions will be screened at the 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, one of the oldest and most important festivals in Eastern Europe (June 29 - July 7, 2012). The documentary film “Dur d'être dieu” by the Swiss-Russian director duo Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov will be screened in competition. The film deals with artistic genius and despotism, portraying as an example the famous Russian director Alexei Guerman, who has been working on his new film for ten years. The Swiss-based Moroccan director Mohcine Besri will compete with his fiction film debut “Les mécréants” in the Forum of Independents. The film is based on a no-exit concept in which a group of actors on tour is confronted with three Islamist kidnappers who are cut off from their spiritual leader. Following its premiere in Cannes, the love drama “A perdre la raison” by Belgian director Joachim Lafosse, coproduced by Box Productions in Lausanne together with Belgium, Luxemburg and France, will also be screened in Karlovy Vary.

Emerging Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum in the limelight
Basel’s Tim Fehlbaum will participate with his German-Swiss coproduction “Hell” in Variety's Ten European Directors to Watch, an event organised by the festival in collaboration with European Film Promotion. Critics from the American film industry magazine selected ten talented European emerging directors to be presented to the audience in Karlovy Vary. The apocalyptic thriller “Hell” was screened on the Piazza Grande in Locarno in 2011, nominated for the Swiss Film Prize “Quartz 2012” and won numerous awards.

Zurich, June 21, 2012