Switzerland

Quote:
David spends the last of his money on a room at the luxury hotel Waldhaus, where he plans to commit suicide. As part of his final act he invites his unsuspecting brother Gian along, ostensibly to spend his last days with him. Unexpectedly, Gian comes along with his girlfriend Valeria. David’s decision to end his life is constantly with them, and as the trio float through the days at the hotel, they come face to face with their past, unfulfilled dreams and an almost unbearable present. Eventually, Valeria becomes so captivated by David’s suicidal romanticism that the three of them end up in a ménage à trois – either their salvation or the end for each of them.Read More »

Jessye is a young and modern Chinese woman who works for the national tourism office in China. She is sent to a small village in southern Italy to investigate the touristic potential of the region for the booming Chinese tourism industry. Her only contact initially is Franco, a solitary farmer who lives with his animals in the countryside and rents his rooms. In the village she also meets Salvatore, who owns the village pub and dreams of a modern lifestyle. Through these and other people of the region Jessye starts to learn more about the local traditions and their endangered Greek language that now have to face the invasion of the present-day expansionist tourism industry.
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The second in a projected trilogy by artist and filmmaker Andrew Kötting, Ivul marks the director’s successful return to narrative filmmaking. A family drama in which the close relationship between teenage siblings Alex and his older sister Freya (Leroux) increases to such an intensity that it develops sexual overtones, adding to the cracks in their not so happy home. An astonishingly distinctive and distinguished work located in the French Pyrenees, Ivul deftly blends the avant-garde, high wire performance and assured storytelling. Ambitious, challenging and yet also accessible, this is Kötting’s most sensory and purely satisfying feature to date. (-Curzon)Read More »

A fake sequel to Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000 (1976). Jonas is now indeed 25, has studied cinema and is living with his black lover, Lila, in Geneva, Switzerland. Between disillusions and the loss of ideals, macjobs and the quest for art, Jonas and Lila try to find their way in life.Read More »

Alpine Fire is as heady and intoxicating as the thin mountain air of the Alps in which it takes place. The entire film is set far above the rest of the world, and the isolated location influences both the characters and the film style.

The exact location is a lonely home pitched on the side of a mountain. Communication with neighbors is done with signs and binoculars; other people may be miles away, on the slope of the next Alp. The time is the present, but the home has no television or telephone, and it seems remote in many ways.

In this house live the elderly parents (Rolf Illig, Dorothea Moritz) and their two children: a daughter, Belli (Johanna Lier) and a son (Thomas Nock) called simply the boy.

The boy is deaf, temperamental and stunted in his learning. The early part of the film details his struggle with the world, and his fascination with ways of seeing; he uses mirrors, binoculars and various looking glasses to examine the silence around him. He becomes enraged when he spots his sister moving to the sounds of a transistor radio, which he immediately finds and destroys.Read More »

In 1968, the Popular Swiss Bank asked to three directors to give their vision about the future of Switzerland. This is their answer.Read More »

Since Larry Clark’s Kids broke all the rules, more than two decades ago, pictures dealing with youth have definitely changed in scope, tone and subject. New technologies only added to the mix – with smartphones and the Internet making all trends and information easily accessible to a younger and younger crowd.Read More »

Synopsis:
A touching story between a lonely woman and a TGV train driver.

Review:
The spirit of warming one’s heart and melting one’s shell brings the fifth Oscar nominee to life. La femme et le TGV (dir. Timo von Gunten; Switzerland, 30 min.) stars Jane Birkin (Blow Up, Twice Born) in a quirky and amusing love story about a frumpy baker who finds one daily bit of solace in her small Swiss town. Every day when the TGV train goes whizzing by, she rushes to the window and waves her flag. For such a grumpy sourpuss, the baker completely melts with joy each time the train passes. She’s as happy as a kid in a candy store—doubly so when a pen pal from the train starts pitching gifts and notes out the window. Birkin is lots of fun and gives La femme et le TGV its sprightly bounce and offbeat charm. Of all the shorts nominated here, La femme et le TGV is the most complete picture. With its economy of storytelling, upbeat tone, and underdog spirit, this fun comedy is a refreshing reminder that lightening up and being good to one’s neighbours is the richest truffle of all.Read More »

Synopsis:
Based on three different places, the film portrays the infractions to which people living in modern day China are subjected due to rapid developments: in the deceptively idyllic Jiuxiancun in the rainy south; in the apocalyptic coal mining site of Minqin and Wusutu in the parched north; and in Chongqing, the mega city on the Yangtze River. The protagonists give their moving accounts of an unresolved past, an uncertain present and their tentative steps into the future. The film thus paints a complex image of the mental state of the people in this complicated country. “Watermarks” is a subjective snapshot in time that takes a poetic look at the changing everyday life in China.Read More »