State of emergency in Switzerland – “Heimatland” in the International Competition in Locarno

In the eagerly awaited fiction film “Heimatland”, the only Swiss entry screened in the International Competition in Locarno, ten young directors – Michael Krummenacher, Jan Gassmann, Lisa Blatter, Gregor Frei, Benny Jaberg, Carmen Jaquier, Jonas Meier, Tobias Nölle, Lionel Rupp and Mike Scheiwiller – tell how people cope when a state of emergency occurs in Switzerland. Two films which premiered in Cannes now celebrate their Swiss premiere on the Piazza Grande: “Amnesia” and “La vanité”. Following “Les grandes ondes (à l‘ouest)” in 2013, this marks the second time Baier presents a film featured on the popular open-air screen. 

Kacey Mottet Klein, the young star from the Romandy, plays the leading role in “Keeper”, the debut film by Belgian director Guillaume Senez, competing in the Cineasti del presente and coproduced by Louise Productions in Lausanne. Three Swiss documentary films will be screened in Fuori concorso: Stéphane Goël embarks on a journey in “Fragments du paradis” to discover varying ideas afterlife; the French-Swiss coproduction “The Woods Dreams Are Made Of” by Claire Simon portrays Parisian Bois de Vincennes; and in “Yes No Maybe” Kaspar Kasics explores the utopian character of love based on two contradictory love stories.

Eleven Swiss short film productions will be screened in the national competition Pardi di domani, while the Panorama Suisse section presents twelve very recent Swiss productions selected by the Solothurn Film Festival, the Swiss Film Academy and SWISS FILMS. Two Swiss productions have made the shortlist for Semaine de la critique. In her first feature-length documentary film “The Day The Sun Fell”, Aya Domenig traces the story of her grandfather, who worked as a young doctor in Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped. Jakob Brossmann’s “Lampedusa in Winter” reports on the solidarity between the inhabitants of this small island and the African refugees.

In addition, films by Kurt Früh, Alain Tanner’s “La salamandre” and the homage to Georges Schwizgebel will be featured in the Histoire(s) du cinéma section. Swiss (co)productions are also on the Film delle giurie programme, where jury members Lorenz Merz (“Cherry Pie”, “Un día y nada”), Laura Bispuri (“Vergine giurata”) and Philippe Garrel (“L’ombre des femmes”) present their works.

On August 11, three eminent international film critics – Peter Debruge (Variety), Anne Thompson (Indiewire) and Boyd van Hoeij (The Hollywood Reporter) – meet with SWISS FILMS director Catherine Ann Berger for the Rendez-vous du cinéma suisse (2:30 pm in Spazio RSI, Magnolia) to discuss four Swiss productions from the festival’s current programme: “Heimatland”, “La vanité”, “Als die Sonne vom Himmel fiel” and “Above and Below” screened in Panorama Suisse.

This year SWISS FILMS is present with a stand for the first time in the Piazza Grande Lounge during the Industry Days (Friday, August 7 – Monday, August 10).

SWISS FILMS, July 15, 2014