Five Swiss documentary films at Kiev film festival
05.04.2006
At the 2nd Ukrainian International Documentary Film Festival «Contact» in Kiev, taking place from April 8 – 14, 2006, four Swiss films are part of the international competition. The three documentary films «Hedy Lamarr» by Donatello Dubini, Fosco Dubini, and Barbara Obermaier, «Hippie Masala» by Ulrich Grossenbacher and Damaris Lüthi, and «Hors temps» (Out of time) by Jeanne Berthoud (CAB Productions, Lausanne), are competing in the section for long, non-fiction films. «Chasseur» (Hunter) by Alexandre Charlet will be shown in the short documentary film competition. In addition, the «Sense of Art – Sense of Life» series will feature «Grock – King of Clowns» by Felice Zenoni.
The films shown in Kiev portray stories of individuals and distinguish themselves by asking existential and universal questions: First is Hedy Lamarr, who was a celebrated and later abandoned star in Hollywood. The actress earned a fortune making movies yet was also caught shoplifting. Another portrait features the famous clown performer Grock who was raised in a poor family in the Swiss Jura region and grew up to become a world famous star by way of Paris, Berlin, and London’s Music Halls. He was celebrated by an audience of millions, among them Winston Churchill, King George V, but also Goebbels and Hitler. And finally «Chasseur» (Hunter), a short film about Victor Nada, who searches for lost items…
Swiss individuals living abroad are at the center of some of the other contemporary productions presented at the Kiev festival: Hippies, who moved to India in the 60s and 70s searching for an alternative lifestyle and ended up settling there for good, along with the story of Rolande (over the age of 50) and Jérôme (25), two Swiss citizens who have the opportunity to complete an internship in an Eastern European country as part of an unemployment program.
The Ukrainian festival «Contact» has documentary films as its focus. It is directed by Andrei Khalpakhtchi, who together with his crew, also organizes the 36th «Molodist» Film Festival in Kiev, which is rich in tradition and one of the largest in Eastern Europe along with Karlovy Vary.
Zurich, April 5, 2006
Swiss individuals living abroad are at the center of some of the other contemporary productions presented at the Kiev festival: Hippies, who moved to India in the 60s and 70s searching for an alternative lifestyle and ended up settling there for good, along with the story of Rolande (over the age of 50) and Jérôme (25), two Swiss citizens who have the opportunity to complete an internship in an Eastern European country as part of an unemployment program.
The Ukrainian festival «Contact» has documentary films as its focus. It is directed by Andrei Khalpakhtchi, who together with his crew, also organizes the 36th «Molodist» Film Festival in Kiev, which is rich in tradition and one of the largest in Eastern Europe along with Karlovy Vary.
Zurich, April 5, 2006