World premieres for Swiss productions in Toronto and San Sebastián

Karim Sayed’s second feature-length documentary film MY ENGLISH COUSIN (MON COUSIN ANGLAIS), produced by Close Up Films, will be screened in the TIFF Docs section of the Toronto International Film Festival (September 7-17, 2019). In this Swiss-French coproduction, the director accompanies his cousin, who emigrated from Algeria to Great Britain, and is now considering returning to his home country. Sayed’s debut film OF SHEEP AND MEN had been selected for screening in TIFF Docs in 2017.

Close Up Films has also coproduced, with minority participation, SING ME A SONG by Thomas Balmès, which will be screened in TIFF Docs. Also screened in this section will be the 3-D film CUNNINGHAM by Russian director Alla Kovgan, in which Swiss producer Dan Wechsler at Bord Cadre films took part. In addition, Wechsler coproduced Corneliu Porumboiu’s fiction film THE WHISTLERS presented in the Masters programme. Swiss acting talent Joel Basman stars in Terence Malick’s A HIDDEN LIFE, which has also been selected for the Masters Programme.

LOVE ME TENDER: from Locarno to Toronto

LOVE ME TENDER, Klaudia Reynicke’s second fiction film (Amka Films Productions) which celebrated its world premiere in the Cineasti del presente section in Locarno, will be screened in the Discovery section at TIFF. World sales and promotion of the film outside Europe by Summerside International from Italy benefit from assistance provided by SWISS FILMS as well as from the Film Sales Support, the federal government’s MEDIA Compensation Measures for European Film Promotion. Representing the film at the festival will be director Klaudia Reynicke, together with Barbara Giordano, the Italian actress in the leading role, and the producer Michela Pini.

Two short films by HSLU graduates will be screened in the Short Cuts Competition: the world premiere of the animation film WHY SLUGS HAVE NO LEGS (WARUM SCHNECKEN KEINE BEINE HABEN) by Aline Höchli (production: Cinéma Copain); as well as the documentary film ALL CATS ARE GREY IN THE DARK (NACHTS SIND ALLE KATZEN GRAU) by Lasse Linder (production: HSLU), which premiered in Locarno.

SWISS FILMS is present with a stand at the film market in Toronto – one of the leading platforms for European films outside Europe. On behalf of the Federal Office of Culture, SWISS FILMS facilitates promotional activities by Swiss producers at festivals within the framework of Festival Support.

World premiere of BEYOND THE HORIZON in San Sebastián

Director Delphine Lehericey will present her second fiction film BEYOND THE HORIZON (LE MILIEU DE L'HORIZON) at the San Sebastián Film Festival (September 20-28, 2019) in the New Directors Competition, which is devoted to first or second feature films. Lehericey’s debut film PUPPY LOVE was screened in the same section in 2013. BEYOND THE HORIZON is a coproduction between Switzerland (Box Productions) and Belgium, world sales have been acquired by Be For Films in Brussels. The film accompanies 13-year-old Gus, a farmer’s son who loses his childhood innocence during a scorching summer in the mid-70s.

Two documentary films from Switzerland have been selected for the Zabaltegi Tabakalera Competition: BIRD ISLAND (L'ÎLE AUX OISEAUX; Close Up Films), the fifth joint film by Maya Kosa and Sergio Da Costa, which premiered in the Cineasti del presente Competition in Locarno; as well as Callisto McNulty’s DELPHINE AND CAROLE (DELPHINE ET CAROLE, INSOUMUSES), which was coproduced by Alva Film Production and celebrated its world premiere in the International Forum of Young Film at the Berlinale.

With his film project ANTIER NOCHE / NIGHTS GONE BY (production: Lomotion AG), the Swiss-Spanish director Alberto Martín Menacho has participated in the Ikusmira Berriak training programme in San Sebastián, a programme of several weeks which concludes during the festival.

SWISS FILMS, September 4, 2019