The Locarno Film Festival, taking place in the picturesque town in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, always shines a light on arthouse voices, whether new or established. And it showcases Swiss films worth audiences’ attention.
That will be the case again during Locarno77, taking place Aug. 7-17, soon after Switzerland also took center stage at the 2024 Cannes Film Market where the Alpine nation was the country of honor.
Among the Swiss fare featured at Locarno this year are such Cannes hits as Laetitia Dosch’s Dog on Trial, and Swiss animator Claude Barras’ Savages, which are screening in the Piazza Grande lineup along with the world premiere of Swiss director Simon Jaquemet’s Electric Child, the international premiere of U.S.-Swiss filmmaker Freddy Macdonald’s Sew Torn and the Swiss premiere of Swiss-Peruvian filmmaker Klaudia Reynicke’s Reinas.
Meanwhile, Locarno’s international competition includes the Swiss entry Der Spatz im Kamin (The Sparrow in the Chimney) from Ramon Zürcher. And there is more Swiss involvement to be found elsewhere in the program.
Importantly, Locarno is also again presenting “Panorama Suisse,” which, as the festival website explains, “presents 10 current Swiss films, such as festival successes, audience favorites and films that have not yet been released in theaters.” They are selected by a committee of representatives from the Solothurn Film Festival, the Swiss Film Academy, and Swiss Films.
Locarno organizers’ promise: “Film lovers from all over the world can thus find a taste of contemporary Swiss cinema at the Locarno Film Festival through a hand-picked section of significant titles.”
So if you want to avoid having Swiss cheese-like holes in your Locarno schedule and ensure at least a bit of Swiss bliss, check out THR‘s look at seven of the Swiss films screening at Locarno77 below.
Bergfahrt – Reise zu den Riesen (Mountain Ride), directed by Dominique Margot, Panorama Suisse section
What is more Swiss than snowy mountains? Well, in the age of climate change of peak tourism, this may have to be rephrased to “not always snowy mountains.”
The nature and environmental documentary already got distribution in Switzerland and Germany, with Maximage handling world sales. And it debuted at the Solothurner Filmtage in Switzerland in January before hitting DOK.fest München in Munich this May.
“After years of mass tourism in the Alps, a rethinking is slowly taking place,” highlights a description of the film. “Whether researchers, artists or philosophers: Many are trying to approach the nature of the mountains in new ways. They reflect the contrasting approaches at this critical time, when we need to redefine our learnt values and actively seek change.”
Margot has made a name for herself as a documentarian. Among her previous films are 2020’s Zoom on Circus (“With the COVID-19 pandemic, circus artists are unemployed, shows are canceled and many companies go bankrupt, including the famous Cirque du Soleil. By Zoom or by Skype, they share with us their daily life) and 2016’s Looking Like My Mother, which followed the filmmaker’s journey as the daughter of a mother who suffered from depression and confronts her fear of inheriting it.
Der Spatz im Kamin (The Sparrow in the Chimney), directed by Ramon Zürcher, international competition
The cast of the German-language feature, for which Cercamon is handling world sales, includes Maren Eggert (I’m Your Man) as Karen, Britta Hammelstein (The Baader Meinhof Complex) as Jule, and Andreas Döhler (All Quiet on the Western Front) as Markus, among others.
Written, directed, and edited by Zürcher (The Girl and the Spider, The Strange Little Cat), the filmmaker’s latest outing seems to follow a similarly contained formula as his previous features with brother Silvan, which were set in the confines of an apartment. It also concludes the Zürcher brothers’ “animal” trilogy of movies with titles that include animals.
“Karen and Markus live with their kids in Karen’s childhood home, nestled in the countryside. On Markus’ birthday, Karen’s sister Jule arrives with her family,” according to the plot description. So far, so good, but here we go. “The sisters are complete opposites. Haunted by memories of their late mother, Jule feels driven to challenge Karen’s authority. As the house fills up, Karen’s tension grows until everything explodes into a fiery inferno. An inferno that destroys the old to make way for the new.”
It all sounds like the perfect set-up for the distinctive Zürcher storytelling language for which the filmmaker has earned a reputation. For his new film, he is also responsible for the sound design together with Peter Von Siebenthal.
Watch the trailer for the film on the Locarno festival site here.
Reinas (Queens), directed by Klaudia Reynicke, Piazza Grande program
If the title sounds familiar, you may have heard about the movie, the director’s third feature, when it premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January, followed in February by its inclusion in the Generation section of the Berlin International Film Festival. There, it won the Grand Prix for the best film in the Generation Kplus section.
The family drama, set in 1992 during a tumultuous time in Lima, Peru, centers on two teenage sisters who are about to leave their country forever when they unexpectedly reconnect with their absent father. THR‘s review called it “an understated portrait of a Peruvian family navigating political turmoil.”
Directed and co-written by Reynicke, the movie stars Jimena Lindo, Gonzalo Molina, Luana Vega,Abril Gjurinovic, and Susi Sánchez. The filmmaker has become a Locarno regular. Her debut feature Il Nido (2016) competed at Locarno where her follow-up Love Me Tender (2019) also screened.
The Landscape and the Fury, directed by Nicole Vögele, Panoroma Suisse section
If the enticing title of Vögele’s documentary doesn’t tempt you, maybe its topic, namely borderlands full of tension, does.
It is a deep dive into the border region between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina where vast forests and small villages can be found along the 932-kilometer-long border. After all, Vögele spent years there observing how the past, including the wars in the former Yugoslavia (1991-2001) and the Bosnian War (1992–1995), still affects the present.
“A cinematographic essay that centers around the region of the Bosnian-Croatian border near Velika Kladuša, and explores questions of displacement, violence and also everyday life and coincidence,” a description of the film calls the result. “It is about scars that break open, war memories that are awakened, profound encounters between people. A kaleidoscope of landscape and fury.”
Taskovski Films is handling world sales rights for the latest from Vögele, who studied journalism and documentary filmmaking. Her debut feature doc from 2018, Closing Time, debuted at Locarno and won the special jury prize of the Cineasti del presente competition. “Mr. Kuo and his wife Mrs. Lin cook for the city’s sleepless. They work all night and sleep during the day, like many others in buzzing Taipei,” its description said. “Until one morning, riding back from the market, Mr. Kuo takes a different exit on the highway.”
Hanami, directed by Denise Fernandes, Concorso Cineasti del Presente section (which puts the spotlight on first and second features)
Fernandes is a writer and director who was born in Lisbon in 1990, the child of Cape Verdean parents, and raised in Switzerland.
Her debut feature, co-written with Telmo Churro, is a Switzerland-Portugal-Cape Verde co-production, with world sales being handled by Alina Film. The movie gets its world premiere at Locarno, with a cast including Yuta Nakano, Alice Da Luz, Sanaya Andrade, and Nha Nha Rodrigues.
‘Hanami’
Courtesy of Locarno Film Festival
The story is described this way: “On a remote volcanic island that everybody wants to leave, little Nana learns to stay. Her mother, Nia, went into exile right after she was born, and Nana grows up in the family of her father. One day, the family learns that Nia is ill … and is sent to the foot of a volcano for treatment. There she encounters a world steeped in magical realism, between dreams and reality. Later, when Nana is a teenager, her mother Nia finally returns to the island.”
Die Anhörung (The Hearing), directed by Lisa Gerig, Panorama Suisse section
The documentary, for which Rise and Shine World Sales handles world sales, has won awards at the Solothurner Filmtage early this year and the Swiss Film Awards, which honored it as the best documentary of 2024.
The film takes us inside the experiences of four rejected asylum seekers who “relive the hearing on their reasons for fleeing their home countries,” a description says, hinting at the emotional dimension of the doc. “Will the interviewees be able to describe their traumatic experiences in a way that satisfies the official criteria? For the first time, the film provides insight into this sensitive hearing, thus questioning the asylum procedure itself.”
The Hearing is the debut feature-length doc from Gerig, who studied film in Zurich and Geneva, majoring in editing. But its topic is not new to her. After all, Gerig’s thesis film is described as “a radically subjective look at the situation of people held in Zurich’s deportation detention center.”
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, directed by Elene Naveriani, Panorama Suisse section
Speaking of Swiss Film Awards winners… Naveriani, who was born in Georgia but now lives in Switzerland and also brought her previous feature, Wet Sand, to Locarno in 2021, had much success at the big Swiss film ceremony this year.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, her drama about a single woman in her 40s who lives in a small town in Georgia and has an affair that triggers an existential awakening, won the best feature film, best screenplay, and best editing honors. It also won the top prize for best film at the 2023 Sarajevo International Film Festival. In addition, star Eka Chavleishvili won the best actress honor at that fest.
The Switzerland-Georgia co-production, which the director co-wrote with several others, has already sold to various European countries, with Totem Films handling world sales duties. But Locarno77 will give film fans another chance to see this movie and a few more Swiss standouts.