«The real is out there»
Strong showing for Swiss documentary filmmaking in Nyon
31.03.2023
With 37 film productions and coproductions being screened in all sections of the festival, Swiss documentary filmmaking plays a prominent role at Visions du Réel in Nyon. Of the 26 works celebrating their Swiss premieres, three have been selected for screening in the International Competition. Furthermore, the film DREAMERS will celebrate its world premiere in the renowned Burning Lights section. SWISS FILMS is presenting six Swiss documentary projects as part of its annual Swiss Films Previews.
The highlight of the International Feature Film Competition will be the world premiere of Peter Mettler’s new film. The Canadian-Swiss director will present two episodes of his audio-visual diary WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS (production: maximage), which begins in the year 2019 and is conceptualised to run for a total of 12 hours in seven parts. Mettler has presented many of his previous films in Nyon and won the Grand Prix in 2002 with his legendary GAMBLING, GODS AND LSD.
The Swiss-Spanish feature-film debut ANTIER NOCHE by Alberto Martín Menacho (Lomotion AG) accompanies local youths in Estremadura, Spain, a village struck by population decline and unemployment. In PURE UNKNOWN , the Italian director duo Valentina Cicogna and Mattia Colombo portray a doctor’s fight for drowned migrants denied their right to identification, a dignified death and a grave. The Swiss coproduction company of the Italian-Swiss-Swedish film is Amka Films. Swiss producer David Epiney (Alina Film) is part of the three-member International Feature Film Competition jury.
Burning Lights with Swiss world premiere
The Burning Lights Competition is dedicated to films with new narrative or formal forms of expression. With DREAMERS, Stéphanie Barbey and Luc Peter (production: Intermezzo Films) will present their third directorial collaboration. As in their last film BROKEN LAND , they address the living conditions of Latin American migrants in the USA. Now in DREAMERS they portray Carlos, who immigrated as a child with his family from Mexico to Chicago and has been facing deportation as an undocumented migrant since he came of age – just like approximately two and a half million people in the USA. Filmmaker Elena López Riera (EL AGUA) and two other jury members will preside over the 15 films screened in this competition.
12 films in the National Competition
With 12 premieres of feature- and medium-length (co)productions from Switzerland, the National Competition testifies to the diversity of Swiss documentary filmmaking. To name just a few examples: By means of a collage based on family archives in PARA NO OLVIDAR director Laura Gabay (production: Association Ecran Mobile) attempts to solve the mystery of her father, who fled the dictatorship in Uruguay. Yamina Zoutat’s essayistic, visually potent CHIENNE DE ROUGE (Close Up Films) deals with the theme of blood, the hidden substance from which our bodies are made. For RUÄCH (production: soap factory, 8horses), Andreas Müller and Simon Guy Fässler travelled with the Yenish for six years on their journey through Europe and tell of their encounters with a community who bear the wounds of the past.
Three Swiss films will be screened in the International Medium-Length and Short Film Competition: ZIMMERWALD by Valeria Stucki sheds light on a forgotten chapter of Swiss history; in ANIMAL, Riccardo Giacconi creates a dialogue between the ancient tradition of puppetry and robotics as well as artificial intelligence. Director Saleh Kashefi, who lives in exile in Switzerland, appropriated archival material on Ali Khamenei to create AND HOW MISERABLE IS THE HOME OF EVIL, a pertinent political narrative about the Iranian dictator’s last moments before his downfall.
Three films will celebrate their Swiss premieres in the Opening Scenes section, which showcases short film or student film debuts: SONNENHOF by Tatjana Fanny, THE WONDERFUL PAIN OF THE WILD BROOM von Olivia G. Calcaterra and L’ARRESTATION DE C. by Arthur Jaquier. Further Swiss films await discovery or can be seen again in the Grand Angle, Highlights or Special Screenings sections.
Retrospective with Jean-Stéphane Bron
As part of Ateliers 2023, Visions du Réel will honour the renowned Swiss filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Bron with a retrospective and a masterclass. The multi-award-winning filmmaker has been working in Switzerland and abroad for more than 20 years, addressing current issues in his versatile and political body of work. His documentary film MAIS IM BUNDESHUUS (2003) was a tremendous box-office hit with over 100,000 admissions. Likewise, L’OPÉRA DE PARIS (2017) was met with worldwide acclaim and garnered Jean-Stéphane Bron his third Swiss Film Award for Best Documentary Film in 2018.
SWISS FILMS Previews at VdR-Industry
As part of VdR-Industry, the festival’s industry days, SWISS FILMS will present the annual Swiss Films Previews in collaboration with Visions du Réel: six Swiss documentary film projects with international potential will be presented by the producers to sales agents, international distributors and festival delegates.
Two projects each from Switzerland will take part in the VdR-Pitching, the international coproduction and financing forum, and in the VdR-Work in Progress, the showcase for creative documentaries nearing completion: SIMON THE ABSURD by Felipe Monroy (Bandita Films) and ARCTIC LINK by Ian Purnell (Ensemble Film) as well as IMMORTALS by Maja Tschumi (Filmgerberei) and Peter Mettler with five more episodes of his documentary series WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS (maximage).
Films
Dreamers
Antier noche
Sconosciuti puri
While the Green Grass Grows
Zimmerwald
And How Miserable is the Home of Evil
Festivals
Person