IDFA 2023
Great variety of films from Switzerland
25.10.2023
Two Swiss films are poised to celebrate their premieres in the renowned Frontlight and Luminous festival sections: 2G by Karim Sayad and Piet Baumgartner’s THE DRIVEN ONES. A total of six productions will spotlight the diversity of Swiss documentary filmmaking at this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (November 8-19, 2023).
Karim Sayad’s documentary film 2G will celebrate its world premiere in the Frontlight section, which showcases films that critically examine the truth and artistically explore the pressing issues of our time. For 2G, the director travelled through the Sahara with four former human smugglers in Niger, where they intended to join gold panners. 2G is the director’s third feature-length documentary film produced by Close Up Films, following OF SHEEP AND MEN (2017) and MY ENGLISH COUSIN (2019).
For his first feature-length documentary film THE DRIVEN ONES, director Piet Baumgartner tracked five business management students for over seven years, from their prestigious studies at the University of St. Gallen HSG to their first steps in the working world. The film was produced by Catpics and will celebrate its international premiere in the Luminous section.
Long-term projects and short films
Two exceptional long-term projects have been selected for screening in the Signed section: Peter Mettler’s cinematic diary WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS (production: maximage), which was recently honoured with a Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig, as well as Jean-Gabriel Périot’s FACING DARKNESS (coproduction: Alina films), a cinematic journey about the occupation of Sarajevo and the protagonists’ view of it 30 years later.
TERRA MATER by director and producer Kantarama Gahigiri has had an impressive international festival career since celebrating its world premiere at Berlinale Shorts. The Swiss-Rwandan short film, now selected for screening in the Best of Fests section in Amsterdam, was staged on a gigantic rubbish dump and fuses pop aesthetics, music and poetry into a form of Afrofuturistic performance art.
Saleh Kashefi’s HOW MISERABLE IS THE HOME OF EVIL (production: L'artifice) will be screened in the Paradocs experimental section. For his short film, the Iranian director, who lives in Switzerland in exile, appropriated archival footage to create a fictional political narrative about the final moments before the downfall of the Iranian dictator, Ali Khamenei.
Two Swiss films from previous festival editions will be screened in IDFA’s extensive School Programme: the influencer portrait GIRL GANG by Susanne Regina Meures (2022, Christian Frei Filmproduktion) as well as Roman Hodel’s short film about football, DAS SPIEL (2020, Ensemble Film).
In conjunction with IDFA and in collaboration with Festival Visions du Réel and German Films, SWISS FILMS has organised a networking lunch. Sales agents, international distributors and festival delegates will have the opportunity to network with Swiss producers and filmmakers.
SWISS FILMS Line-Up Docs Fall
The new Line-up Docs Fall, curated by SWISS FILMS, provides information on other current Swiss documentaries currently screening at festivals, as well as the latest doc projects in production.