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Execs hail opportunities despite market crush Christine Vachon

Gender gap brings high price BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

Both Hollywood and the independent film world are missing a financial trick by failing to engage with female audiences, top sales agents, agents and producers warned at a panel on the economic impact of the gender gap in the film business at the Zurich Summit on Saturday. “There’s a lot of money left on the table when you’re leaving out certain audiences,” said agent Laura Lewis of Creative Artists Agency. Film sales supremo Kim Fox of MadRiver Pictures, noting the recent box-office success of US comedy Bad Moms, underlined the fact that women liked films capturing their realities. Top indie producer Christine Vachon said there was huge pressure to cast male stars to draw in financiers and distributors. “With Still Alice, there was a lot of pressure for us to cast up for the role of the husband and the running joke was that it wasn’t called Still Alice And John. We were lucky that Alec Baldwin didn’t have that ego a lot of male actors have that would have prevented him from being involved in a good movie.”

American Pastoral

NEWS Fighting for space Local distributors battle US-heavy market » Page 3

INTERVIEW Olivier Assayas The French film-maker on directing Kristen Stewart and writing for Polanski » Page 4

REVIEW American Pastoral

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

“The business is in a better place than it has ever been,” according to Sony Picture Classics cofounder Michael Barker. Speaking on a heavyweight Zurich Summit panel about independent film financing and releasing, Barker expressed optimism about the large number of revenue streams currently available to film-makers and financiers. “Right now, we have to pay attention to every revenue stream,” he said. “Airlines are better, TV offers a different mosaic, there is DVD, streaming, international. There’s a big future in China.” Black Swan and Jackie producer Scott Franklin of Protozoa Pictures said he “saw more promise” in the market: “I see more pre-buys than a year ago. There is more competition. It’s promising and exciting.” However, Barker cautioned that the US market continues to suffer from saturation. “Audiences are overwhelmed by product,” he said. “The challenge of US distribution now is the glut of new material. Our job is to make films distinctive. It’s very difficult. But distribution is more creative than ever in the 35 years I’ve been doing this.” Cutting through to audiences requires distributors to rethink their release models. “We all have

TODAY

Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut finds a strong emotional core » Page 7

SCREENINGS Today and tomorrow’s line-up » Page 9

The Zurich Summit at the Dolder Grand

to make a decision when we do these films: what kind of release does this film deserve?” asked Barker. “Does it require theatrical, does it require day-and-date?” Lionsgate Motion Picture cochairman Patrick Wachsberger agreed, calling the US release calendar “a minefield”, which necessitates more day-anddate releasing. The executive said Lionsgate releases around 40 films day-and-date each year. SPC has never released a feature day-anddate but Barker admitted “it isn’t out of the realm of possibility”. The need for smart, early prebuys is greater than ever, the panel agreed. By example, Barker paid tribute to Lionsgate’s acquisition of awards favourite La La

Land: “It’s important to understand what Patrick [Wachsberger] did by committing to La La Land early. That was a huge risk and it paid off. I remember when the script was passed around. Everyone loved it but everyone was afraid because the budget was much higher. Patrick rose to the occasion.” CAA co-head of film finance Roeg Sutherland predicted a Best Picture win for the film and Wachsberger himself joked that his “tux was at the dry cleaners” in anticipation of a night at the Oscars. The panel also noted the crush of awards season, with Wachsberger revealing that Lionsgate can shell out up to $6m on an awards campaign.

Monday highlights

Oliver Stone slams Swiss surveillance charter

Ewan McGregor flies into Zurich on Monday for the special gala screening of his directorial debut American Pastoral. Also screening on Monday will be Egyptian director Mohamed Diab’s hard-hitting post-revolution drama Clash , which recently won the endorsement of Tom Hanks as a “must-see”.

US director Oliver Stone, at the Zurich Film Festival with his politically charged film Snowden, says he expects Swiss voters to back a new surveillance law in a national referendum on Sunday. Speaking at the Snowden press conference, the Oscar-winning director said a ‘yes’ vote was inevitable but warned against it

nonetheless. “Governments keep repeating it: ‘Terror, terrorism, fear, fear’ and how they need more laws to catch these people,” he said. “That’s not in evidence. The more information they get, the less they see.” The Swiss government claims the intelligence services need wider surveillance powers to

counter terror attacks. “Everyone will vote in the direction of more security which is insanity,” said Stone. “Don’t forget the Nazis offered the same deal in the 1930s. They said, ‘We need to protect you and in return…’ Well you saw what happened. You think you’re going to get more security but I don’t believe it.” Melanie Goodfellow

Oscar push for Aquarius’ Sonia Braga BY KALEEM AFTAB

Following Brazil’s controversial decision to select David Schurmann’s drama Little Secret to represent the country at the 89th Academy Awards, director Kleber Mendonca Filho has confirmed that his film’s US distributor Vitagraph Films will launch an Oscar campaign for Sonia Braga in the hopes of securing a Best Actress award.“They are going to try and push Sonia,” confirmed Mendonca Filho at the Zurich Film Festival. Aquarius opens in the US on October 14. Mendonca Filho revealed that the campaign will kick off in two weeks with a dinner in Los Angeles. This follows the controversy on the red carpet at Cannes, when the film-makers led a protest against the suspension of Brazil’s president Rousseff Dilma, who was dismissed on the same day that Aquarius was released in Brazil. Mendonca Filho is still upset by the nomination snub. “The only real bummer is the Oscar campaign. It’s almost like film criticism: it’s not about what is the best film, it’s about what film is the most prestigious. And Aquarius is Brazil’s most prestigious film for many years.”

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NEWS

Bayon scores film music prize Spanish composer Javier Bayon won the fifth International Film Music Competition, running as part of this year’s Zurich Film Festival. Bayon was awarded the Golden Eye for Best Film Music 2016 and $10,000 in prize money. The ceremony was held at the city’s renowned Tonhalle hall on Friday. Romanian composer Lucian Zbarcea was given a special mention. The event is organised jointly by ZFF with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich in collaboration with the Forum Filmmusik. For this year’s competition, applicants were asked to score Seth Boyden’s 2015 An Object At Rest, an animated short about a rock faced with the threat of human civilisation. Bayon and Zbarcea were among five composers whose scores were shortlisted out of 202 submissions.

Packed market leaves Swiss distributors fighting for space BY TOM GRATER

Local distributors in Switzerland are wrangling with the challenges of an overcrowded market saturated by too many releases and competition from deep-pocketed studios rivals. In 2015, a total of 454 films were distributed in Switzerland. That figure has remained steady over recent years, but blockbuster releases have left narrow windows for independent distributors to release their films. “There are a lot of event movies that people feel the need to see so they can talk about them in the office,” says Ralph Dietrich, CEO of Swiss distributor Ascot Elite, which had a 6% market share in 2015 compared to 21% for Universal and 20% for Disney). “We’re trying to compete with the studios but it’s not easy.” Even though Ascot Elite releases big-budget content —

Ascot Elite released The BFG in Switzerland

their 2016 distribution titles include The BFG and Now You See Me 2 — the lack of room means films need to hit right away, putting more pressure on independent distributors. “Distributors have to focus all their effort on a very short time span,” says Jela Skerlak, who oversees distribution support at Switzerland’s Federal Office for Culture. “They have two weeks to do their maximum promo-

‘We don’t have enough screens’ Ralph Dietrich, Ascot Elite

tional work and if the film doesn’t find an audience in that time it dies very quickly.” In 2015, the average person in Switzerland (which has a population of just over eight million) purchased 1.79 cinema tickets, a

figure that has fallen slightly since 2010. Dietrich believes the lack of growth can be attributed to a lack of cinemas. “We don’t have enough screens,” he says. “Some multiplexes are being built, but in smaller cities we still only have one or two screens maximum.” While the number of screens in the country has increased marginally over the last decade, from 539 in 2005 to 577 in 2015, the number of cinema sites has decreased significantly, dropping from 334 in 2005 to 280 in 2015. Skerlak says that distributors will need to “find innovative ways to attract audiences” if they are to thrive, while Dietrich believes the number of theatrical releases has reached an unsustainable peak and will decline. “Independent producers and sales companies know mid-size movies are going to be gone soon because there’s no market anymore.”

Uma Thurman at Zurich on Saturday

Splash of cinematic reflection

TARANTINO MUSINGS At an on-stage conversation at the Arena Cinemas in Sihlcity following a screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Uma Thurman related how she and the director first devised the character while they were shooting Pulp Fiction. “We got excited about this idea of ‘Beatrix Kiddo, the blood-stained bride’,” said the actress. “I loved how he kept her name secret throughout the whole movie.” Thurman still has the original Kill Bill script, which Tarantino wrote in long hand in felt-tip pen and which ran to four hours before he later decided to split it into two films. “It’s somewhere in my house,” she said. “I have to find it. It’s really fat.”

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Zurich Film Festival regulars may have noticed the addition of a new venue this year in the shape of the intricate floating Pavilion of Reflections on the lake. ZFF co-founder and artistic director Karl Spoerri explains the temporary construction — which is hosting a series of free screenings of films with links to Zurich — was the site of the touring arts exhibition Manifesta, which touched down in the city over the summer. “It’s such a cool space and has a screen so we decided to use it as a one-off venue for this year,” he says. Hosting the Zurich Mon Amour programme, films showing include late Swiss director Kurt Früh’s Café Odeon, capturing the famous café in the 1950s, Stefan Haupt’s award-winning The Circle and the 2015 ZFF Audience Award winner Amateur Teens. Melanie Goodfellow

September 25-26, 2016 Screen International at Zurich 3

INTERVIEW OLIVIER ASSAYAS

The raconteur F

rench director Olivier Assayas will touch down in Zurich this year to receive the festival’s Tribute award and present his metaphysical thriller Personal Shopper, which is screening as part of a retrospective of his works. Starring Kristen Stewart (also recently seen in Woody Allen’s Café Society) as a psychic young woman trying to connect with her dead twin brother in Paris, the film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May. It is the second time Assayas has worked with Stewart, after Clouds Of Sils Maria, and rumours abound about a potential third collaboration. “For now, there is nothing in the pipeline,” he says. “But I don’t rule it out for the future.” The director, who has worked with a roster of top actresses over his 30-year career including Juliette Binoche, Maggie Cheung and Chloë Sevigny, describes Stewart as “the best actress of her generation”. “Kristen has an infinitely larger range than many actresses of her generation,” he says. “She has an inner depth coupled with a spontaneity and naturalness that set her apart. She

Manfred Werner

Olivier Assayas offers reflections on Kristen Stewart, Roman Polanski and his hope to revive passion project Idol’s Eye. Melanie Goodfellow reports Olivier Assayas, (inset) Kristen Stewart in Personal Shopper

‘Kristen has an infinitely larger range than many actresses of her generation’ Olivier Assayas

also has an innate understanding of cinema that makes me believe she could succeed at directing too.” Assayas wrote the screenplay for Per-

sonal Shopper to get over the frustration of the shelving of his USfinanced action thriller Idol’s Eye just as it was due to shoot in Toronto in 2014 with Robert Pattinson and Robert De Niro in the lead roles. “I had to turn the page and move

on,” says the film-maker, who has not given up hope of getting Idol’s Eye off the ground, revealing that his producer Charles Gillibert has now got the rights back to the project. “I hope it will be my next film. I’d like to shoot it in Toronto before the end of the winter.” Masters at work The film-maker recently collaborated with Roman Polanski on the screenplay of Based On A True Story, a psychological thriller about a writer who is hounded by an obsessive reader. Polanski, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Zurich in 2011, is due to start shooting in November with Emmanuelle Seigner as the writer opposite Eva Green as her tormentor. “He proposed it out of the blue,” reveals Assayas. “I hesitated at first because it’s been 20 years since I’ve written a screenplay for another director. I think it ended up being a satisfying experience for both of us.” Zurich Film Festival’s Assayas retrospective features 12 of his works, ranging from his debut feature Disorder to the recently restored Irma Vep and his 2010 biopic s Carlos. n

SPOTLIGHT MARCEL HOEHN

Swiss master

Being honoured at Zurich with the Lifetime Achievement Award, Swiss producer Marcel Hoehn discusses his illustrious career with Tom Grater n Zurich to receive the Lifetime Achievement award for his contribution to Switzerland’s cinema industry, veteran producer Marcel Hoehn has announced his retirement following 40 years in the business. “I’m 69, I’m no longer the youngest – I’ve decided to stop myself and not wait until I fall under the table,” jokes Hoehn while discussing his distinguished career with Screen. Having founded his production company T&C Film in Zurich in 1976, Hoehn began with a bang when his debut feature, Rolf Lyssy’s comedy The Swissmakers, was a national hit. The film clocked close to one million

admissions when it was released in 1978, a record for the country that still stands today. Hoehn is particularly regarded for his collaborations with directors such as Christoph Schaub (including 2009 Locarno Audience award-winning comedy Julia’s Disappearance) and Daniel Schmid (on films such as Hécate, which played in Berlin competition in 1982). Hoehn and Schmid would have made more films, says the producer, but their collaboration was cut short by the

4 Screen International at Zurich September 25-26, 2016

director’s death in 2006, which Hoehn refers to as “the saddest experience of my career”. Having operated in the Swiss industry for four decades, Hoehn has seen many shifts and he regards the country’s decision to leave the European Commission’s MEDIA programme in 2013 as potentially landmark. “It has become harder to produce films in Switzerland since leaving MEDIA, coupled with the cost of production here,” he says. Switzerland’s interior minister Alain Berset has since promised new funding to promote the international presence of Swiss films to compensate

Marcel Hoehn

‘It has become harder to produce films in Switzerland since leaving MEDIA’ Marcel Hoehn

but Hoehn hopes the country will one day return to MEDIA. Zurich Film Festival will honour Hoehn’s career with a retrospective of 12 of his productions, including Hécate and Tosca’s Kiss. Hoehn’s affiliation with the festival goes back to its launch 12 years ago, including being a jury member in 2012 and premiering his HR Giger documentary, Dark Star, here in 2014. Following his decision to retire, Swiss distributor Frenetic Films has taken over T&C Film. While production activities will cease, Frenetic plans to continue distributing the company’s back s catalogue. n

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REVIEWS

Reviews edited by Finn Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

Lion Reviewed by Fionnuala Halligan It is the kind of astonishing story only true life can deliver: Saroo Brierley, lost at the age of five, found on the streets of Kolkata and adopted by an Australian family. Decades later, with only the vaguest memories of his village, he used Google Earth to find his way home. This is the kind of overwhelming story that cinema often does not distil well, but Lion becomes a dignified, highly moving crowdpleaser in the hands of Garth Davis. With knockout performances from Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman and the young Sunny Pawar, Lion should straddle both commercial and awards play, welcome news for backer The Weinstein Company. Comparisons will be drawn to Slumdog Millionaire, but this is a far grittier pearl. Probing insistently at the tangled ideas of family and brotherhood, Lion proves to be a powerful and distressing reminder of how disposable a child’s life can be. Yet its most Dickensian scenes are played out calmly, meaning this is a film that engages consistently. It is only at the end that this 120-minute feature bows to inevitability and the score begins to overstate its case — but, by then, Lion has earned an indulgence. Although Dev Patel headlines, Sunny Pawar leads the way. Most of the film is set in a parched India, where train tracks frame the story. And if Lion isn’t in India, the country is in the heads of

GALA PREMIERE

Aus. 2016. 120mins Director Garth Davis Production company See-Saw Films International sales The Weinstein Company, international@ weinsteinco.com Producers Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Angie Fielder Screenplay Luke Davies, from Saroo Brierley’s A Long Way Home Cinematography Greig Fraser Production design Chris Kennedy Editor Alexandre de Franceschi Music Dustin O’Halloran, Hauschka Main cast Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Priyanka Bose

6 Screen International at Zurich September 25-26, 2016

the leading characters. Starting out on a steam engine in the northern province of Khandwa in 1986, Davis gives us the brothers Gaddu (Abhishek Bharate) and Saroo (Pawar), who steal coal in exchange for milk to bring to their labourer mother (Priyanka Bose). One night Saroo begs to be brought along when Gaddu goes to find work, and the two become separated when Saroo falls asleep on a station platform. He is trapped in a locomotive travelling 1,600 miles to Kolkata and, in short order, his very existence — let alone survival — becomes tenuous. He speaks Hindi, not Bengali, making him even more isolated. He watches as street kids are rousted; he meets a woman who sets him up with a dangerous man; he ends up with the police but does not know his mother’s name or where his village is — he calls it “Ganestelay”, but that is an approximation. But Saroo is lucky. He is adopted by a loving couple from Tasmania, John and Sue Brierley (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman). They also take in a second child from India, who is far more troubled than Saroo. If India is dust and orange and vast spaces in which to frame a tiny child, Tasmania is wild and beautiful. The Australian sequences are more difficult to stage, with Davis forced to shut down one chapter and move into an entirely different arena with brand new players. He is helped by the quality of his cast. Patel more than holds the centre as

the adult Saroo, the lost boy who finds it impossible to become a man. Nicole Kidman is magnetic as his forceful adoptive mother Sue, and Rooney Mara helps as his girlfriend. Davis, making his much-anticipated debut here after the admired TV series Top Of The Lake, which he co-helmed with Jane Campion, never seems to struggle. When Saroo becomes haunted by Gaddu, it seems like a natural thing, mirrored by his struggles with his adoptive brother. The story dictates that Saroo should spend a lot of time on Google Earth, of course, but Davis does not allow the search to weigh down the film’s themes. By this time, anyway, much of the audience will be reaching for their handkerchiefs. A word for Lion’s technical team: Davis’s achievement in capturing Saroo’s trek across India is notable. While Greig Fraser’s beautiful camerawork is clearly a star, production design by Chris Kennedy is also spot-on, giving a redolent sense of space without resorting to the usual colour-splash sub-continent clichés. And the noise of India fades in and out as it might to a child; silence at crucial moments returns to a deafening clamour. If Saroo’s story seems out-of-this world, the team behind this film has risen to meet the challenge it sets. There may be a sense of inevitability about Saroo’s ultimate destination, but what counts here is the journey.

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» Lion p6 » American Pastoral p7 » Trespass Against Us p7

Trespass Against Us

» Nocturama p8 » Aquarius p8

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM / COMPETITION

Reviewed by Allan Hunter

American Pastoral Reviewed by Tim Grierson Bob Dylan’s musical warning to the parents of the counterculture — “Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command” — haunts the protagonist of American Pastoral, a wildly uneven adaptation that cannot hope to capture the breadth of Philip Roth’s majestic 1997 novel. And yet, Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut finds its own emotional core, zeroing in on the tragedy that befalls when a man’s wilful daughter torpedoes his seemingly perfect life. This Lionsgate release opens in North America on October 21, boasting a cast that includes McGregor, Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning. Mixed reviews may stall awards talk, but the material’s pedigree and its family-drama trappings should attract upscale viewers. Spanning roughly 20 years, American Pastoral stars McGregor as Seymour ‘Swede’ Levov, a high-school athlete who goes on to become a successful businessman and husband to the ravishing Dawn (Connelly). His enviable life hits its first snag, though, when his rebellious teen daughter Merry (Fanning) begins acting out in protest of the Vietnam War, her exploits turning deadly when she kills a man during the bombing of a post office, forcing her to go underground. Among other themes, Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel examines how the promise of a stable, post-war US came to clash with the next generation’s desire for social upheaval. McGregor and screenwriter John Romano can only scratch the book’s ambitious surface, the adaptation condensing and simplifying its grand trajectory. Equally troublesome, McGregor cannot conjure up Swede’s almost preternatural, golden-god-like vitality, a failing that makes the character’s later fall from grace not as steep a collapse as it should be. Nonetheless, American Pastoral is sufficiently moving when it digs into Swede’s troubled relationship with his beloved only child. As Fanning begins to emerge as the central character, the story’s poignancy takes hold and it is a testament to her performance that she honours this intentionally irrational character’s militancy with such steeliness that our heart breaks for Swede.

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GALA PREMIERE US. 2016. 108mins Director Ewan McGregor Production companies Lionsgate, Lakeshore Entertainment International sales Lakeshore Entertainment, sales@lakeshore entertainment.com US distributor Lionsgate, www.lionsgate.com/movies Producers Tom Rosenberg, Gary Lucchesi, Andre Lamal Screenplay John Romano, based on the novel by Philip Roth Cinematography Martin Ruhe Production design Daniel B Clancy Editor Melissa Kent Music Alexandre Desplat Main cast Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, Peter Riegert, Rupert Evans, Uzo Aduba, Molly Parker, Valorie Curry, Hannah Nordberg, Julia Silverman, Mark Hildreth, Samantha Mathis, David Strathairn

Blood ties are impossible to defy in Trespass Against Us, an impressive first feature from TV and music-video director Adam Smith. Dynamic storytelling and powerful performances bring out the pathos in a tale of conflicting loyalties set on the criminal edges of a travelling community. One of the film’s most striking elements is the way in which Smith manages to evoke sympathy for characters that initially seem beyond the scope of our compassion. Outsider Chad Cutler (Michael Fassbender) is a man who displays nothing but contempt for anything that stands in the way of him living life on his own terms. He does show respect to his father Colby (Brendan Gleeson) and is a devoted father to his own children, including six-year-old Tyson (Georgie Smith). Chad wants his son to live a settled life, and it is that longing for something better that sets him at odds with his father. Alastair Siddons’ screenplay is uncompromising in its depiction of a close-knit community where Colby has the authority of a king. It is initially difficult to tune your ear to the vernacular, which could be an issue for some audiences and make the film a tough sell. It also takes time to warm to the characters and look beyond their criminal actions to see the human beings beneath. All of that may make the film a challenge, but ensures it earns its impact. Smith’s immersion in this world echoes the work of Andrea Arnold or Shane Meadows but he adds his own muscular signature in the staging of car chases and robberies and uses Edu Grau’s images of landscape to add a layer of lyricism to the events. There are also welcome touches of black humour and the surreal that come as welcome relief to the darker mood that prevails. Smith’s other skill lies in bringing out the best in his performers. Smith is a scene-stealing natural as the tearaway Tyson. Lyndsey Marshal brings a fiery spark to the role of Chad’s wife Kelly. A charismatic Fassbender captures the feckless, bad-boy charm of Chad and his feelings of inadequacy. Gleeson balances the gormless with the ruthless as a figure who seems a dim-witted, lumbering oaf but can snap in an instant. Watching these two heavyweights go head to head as a father and son is one of the film’s great pleasures.

UK. 2016. 94mins Director Adam Smith Production companies Potboiler Productions, Albert Granville International sales Protagonist Pictures, info@protagonistpictures. com Producers Andrea Calderwood, Gail Egan, Alastair Siddons Screenplay Alastair Siddons Cinematography Edu Grau Editors Kristina Hetherington, Jake Roberts Production design Nick Palmer Music Tom Rowlands (The Chemical Brothers) Main cast Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Lyndsey Marshal, Killian Scott, Rory Kinnear, Georgie Smith

September 25-26, 2016 Screen International at Zurich 7

REVIEWS

Nocturama Reviewed by Lisa Nesselson Bertrand Bonello’s Paris-set Nocturama does a riveting job of observing a group of young people who think it is a good idea to do what should be unthinkable. This film could not be more pertinent, although it was in the works long before “Charlie Hebdo”, “Bataclan”, “Brussels train station”, “Orlando nightclub” and “Nice” became shorthand for out-of-the-blue violence. Graced with a distinctive cast and cinematic verve, there is lingering food for thought in this borderline surreal, delectably tense, artistically coherent venture that should attract plenty of attention. The drawback is that reviews may spill too many beans before prospective viewers can experience for themselves the aura of mystery permeating the first, intriguing 20 minutes. There is a virtuoso matter-of-factness to the action, which plays out with exact times — starting at 2:07pm — superimposed over sequences of half-a-dozen individuals who may or may not know each other solemnly taking public transportation in Paris. For those familiar with the Paris Metro system, the spatial geography is superb — many shots were reportedly grabbed on the fly. There is a creepy momentum at work — to what end is anybody’s guess, but the clock is ticking. They are not frivolous or fun-loving, they are on a mission. But what is it? In due time, they have done something irrepa-

GALA PREMIERE

Fr-Ger-Bel. 2016. 130mins Director/screenplay/ music Bertrand Bonello Production companies Rectangle Productions, Wild Bunch, Pandora Film Produktion, Scope Pictures, Arte France Cinema, My New Picture International sales Wild Bunch, obarbier@ wildbunch.eu Producers Edouard Weil, Alice Girard Cinematography Léo Hinstin Editor Fabrice Rouaud Production design Katia Wyszkop Main cast Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani, Manal Issa, Martin Guyot, Jamil McCraven, Rabah Naït Oufella, Laure Valentinelli, Ilias Le Doré, Robin Goldbronn

rable and it looks as if they are going to get away with it if they just wait out one night together in an enclosed central Paris location, rife with visual possibilities. Their detachment is not brought on by brainwashing or drugs or terrible childhoods or any of the customary culprits. They have jobs, romantic partners and are integrated into society. It is simply a given they share: society needs to wake up, but society is unlikely to read their actions as they do. They also have no intention of becoming martyrs.

Time is fractured with a directness that gives events a non-stop undertow of anxiety, something Bonello handles well. Whereas his last film, Saint Laurent, was extravagant in its approach to artistry and debauchery on a rarefied plane, here there is something poignant about so much misguided stupidity masquerading as intelligence. The protagonists are pathetic yet see themselves as bold and daring and, in this, Bonello has captured something about the present moment that rings absolutely true.

and a warm and perceptive study of the dynamics within an extended family. Sales should be strong and festival interest seems assured. The device of the unscrupulous property developer is a timely theme, both in Brazil and elsewhere in the world. Clara comes from privilege — the contested apartment block named Aquarius, is on the upscale Avenida Boa Viagem — and she is positioned as both a maverick rebel

standing up against ‘the man’ and a stubborn old woman who is forcing the other residents to miss out on their potential windfall. A three-chapter structure divides the story into segments dealing with Clara’s Hair, Clara’s Love and Clara’s Cancer. We are introduced to her as a younger woman, in 1980. She has recently survived cancer and is hosting a birthday party for her beloved aunt. Winding forward to the present day, it is not hard to see the parallels between Clara as an older woman and the forthright aunt she loved. Filho makes minimal use of flashbacks, but those he does allow give a playful sense of the accumulated history of the building. As a music writer, Clara has a certain amount of fame. There is one lovely sequence early on, in which she delivers a fascinating anecdote to illustrate her love of vinyl to a cub journalist who is doggedly obsessed with MP3s. And music is crucial in the film — Clara’s tastes are eclectic, ranging from Queen’s ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ to the work of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Favouring an unhurried pace, Filho takes the time to let us get to know Clara. And while the moments of drama are small and intimate, the effect is engrossing. The joy of this character is the fact she constantly surprises.

Aquarius Reviewed by Wendy Ide A magnetic central performance from Sonia Braga is the driving force in a relatively conventional but compelling drama from Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho. This second fiction feature (he also made a full-length documentary, Critico) follows his acclaimed debut, Neighboring Sounds. But while it shares a setting — both films take place in the city of Recife in Brazil — and a fascination with the relationships between residents and the buildings in which they live, this film lacks some of the formal rigour that made his debut so arresting. But this hardly matters, with force-of-nature Braga giving one of the most extraordinary performances of her career. Her wonderful creation, the spirited 65-yearold former music journalist Clara, is a joy to behold. And the lack of complex, sexual leading roles for women over 50 is a huge selling point for this portrait of a prickly, pot-smoking thorn in the side of a bullying property development company. The film is ostensibly about Clara and her dogged refusal to sell her apartment, even though she is the last inhabitant remaining of the block. But this serves as a jumping-off point for a commentary on social divisions in modern Brazil

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM/ COMPETITION Bra-Fr. 2016. 142mins Director/screenplay Kleber Mendonca Filho Production company SBS Films International sales SBS International, contact@ sbs-productions.com Producers Emilie Lesclaux, Said Ben Said, Michel Merkt Cinematography Pedro Sotero, Fabricio Tadeu Editor Eduardo Serrano Production design Juliano Dornelles, Thales Junqueira Main cast Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings, Irandhir Santos, Humberto Carrao, Zoraide Coleto, Fernando Teixeira, Buda Lira

8 Screen International at Zurich September 25-26, 2016

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SCREENINGS Edited by Paul Lindsell

» Screening times and venues

are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration.

paullindsell@gmail.com

SUNDAY SEPT 25 09:30 WAR ON EVERYONE See box, right

10:30 HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY

(India) 2015, 108 mins, Hindi. Dir: Anjuli Shukla Cast: Farzan Sheikh Nasir, Prapti Kedar Jani. When two siblings hear about Mother’s Day for the first time, they make the decision to gift their mother something extraordinary. ZFF for Kids Arena 5

10:30 SIMPLY LIVING

(Switzerland) 2016, 99 mins. German, Swiss German. Dir: Hans Haldimann. Is it possible to live a life completely independent of social and economic constraints, wholly at one with nature? In the picturesque mountains of Val Lavizzara in Ticino, several individuals have come together to form a cooperative society and live such a life. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arena 4 press

11:30

FESTIVAL: SUNDAY SEPT 25 09.30 WAR ON EVERYONE

(UK) 2016, 98 mins. English. Dir: John Michael McDonagh. Cast: Michael Pena, Alexander Skarsgard, Theo James, Tessa Thompson. Cops-in-crime Terry Monroe and Bob Bolano are anything but honourable police officers: they extort gangsters, snort illegal substances, refuse to economise on alcohol and smash the odd 11:45

DANCER

LADY MACBETH

(UK) 2016, 85 mins. English, Russian, Ukrainian. Dir: Steven Cantor. Cast: Sergei Polunin. Sergei Polunin had just turned 19 when he became the primo ballerino at London’s Royal Ballet. The extraordinarily talented Ukranian dancer is considered to be the enfant terrible of the ballet scene — as well as the best his generation has to offer. Film-maker Steven Cantor paints an intoxicating portrait of a sensitive world-class dancer.

(UK) 2016, 89 mins. English. Dir: William Oldroyd. Cast: Florence Pugh, Christopher Fairbank, Cosmo Jarvis, Bill Fellows. The rural north of England, the year is 1865. Stifled in an arranged and loveless marriage with Alexander, a man more than twice her age, 17-year-old Catherine spends her days with her maid in almost complete isolation. When her husband leaves for business one day, Catherine takes her first steps towards freedom. While walking through the countryside of their

Gala Premieres Arthouse Piccadilly press

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smart car against a wall. With their own (often violent) approach to the law, the duo is feared even more by their colleagues than by criminals in New Mexico. The dirty business conducted by these guardians of the law runs like a welloiled machine. But there’s one force they did not reckon with: someone with an eye on the very same prey. Gala Premieres Arthouse Piccadilly press

estate, she meets young worker Sebastian, with whom she begins a passionate affair. This is soon met with great scepticism by outsiders. However, a fire has been ignited within Catherine and nothing will stop her getting what she wants. International Feature Film/ Competition Arena 3 press

12:00 CARLOS

(France, Germany) 2010, 188 mins. Arabic, German, English, French, Hungarian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish. Dir: Olivier Assayas. Cast: Edgar Ramirez, Nora von Waldstätten, Alexander

Scheer, Christoph Bach, Julia Hummer. Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, alias “Carlos”, was one of the 20th century’s most cold-blooded terrorists. Assayas’ momentous, meticulously researched biopic follows his career from the 1970s until his arrest in 1994. An action-packed historical panorama. Retro: Olivier Assayas Filmpodium

12:30 AQUARIUS

(Brazil, France) 2016, 145 mins. Portugese. Dir: Kleber Mendonca Filho. Cast: Sonia Braga, Maeve Jinkings. Clara, a proud and beautiful 60-yearold widow, lives in a sophisticated district of the Brazilian coastal town of Recife. Her flat has become an essential part of her life but is suddenly earmarked for demolition — to be be replaced by a new building. Clara, however, refuses to leave a place full of precious memories. International Feature Film/ Competition Corso 2

13:00 IRMA VEP

(France) 1996, 99 mins. English, French. Dir: Olivier Assayas.

Cast: Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Leaud. A celebrated Hong Kong diva travels to Paris for a film shoot. She slips into a skin-tight black latex suit to play the role of the queen of burglars Irma Vep. With all eyes on her, her translator is creating more chaos than understanding, and the aged director turns into a bag of nerves.

watch over him. Santa and Andres are as close as it gets to being true opposites and are not supposed to get on; what they cannot imagine, however, is that they have more things in common than they ever expected.

Retro: Olivier Assayas Corso 3

(Poland) 2015, 50 mins. Polish. Dir: Marek Lechki. Cast: Marcin Dorocinski, Marta Nieradkiewicz, Magdalena Cielecka, Jacek Poniedzialek. Piotr knows what he wants and how to get it. Sporting a five-day beard, the smart man with a serious mind has made a name for himself in investigative journalism. The trail of his latest case — a wide-reaching probe into financial fraud — leads to the unexpected: his own brother. Which is just the beginning of a complex and dangerous spiral into which the journalist seems to slide further and further. Set in Warsaw, ZFF is screening all six episodes of HBO-Europe’s most recent mini series.

13:00 SANTA & ANDRES

(Cuba, France, Columbia) 2016, 105 mins. Spanish. Dir: Carlos Lechuga. Cast: Lola Amores, Eduardo Martinez. In 1983, in a rural mountain region of eastern Cuba, Andres, a noncompliant gay writer in his 50s, is blacklisted by the government for having “ideological problems”. When a big event arises someone reliable must be appointed to watch over him and make sure he does not get in a position to make any public political statement. Santa — a country girl in her 30s who works on a farm — is assigned to the task. For three days in a row, Santa will sit in front of Andres’ hut and keep

Window: San Sebastian Arena 4

13:00 THE PACT

Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections

September 25-26, 2016 Screen International at Zurich 9

SCREENINGS

Kenneth “Symba McQueen” Soler-Rios. Offers insight into the world of today’s young black LGBT community in New York, which evolved out of the Harlem ballroom scene in the 1980s.

13:30 AMERICAN PASTORAL

(US) 2016, 109 mins. English. Dir: Ewan McGregor. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, Uzo Aduba, David Strathairn, Valorie Curry. On the surface it seems that Seymour “Swede” Levov and his wife Dawn are the perfect American couple. The celebrated former athlete and the former beauty queen live an orderly life together with their daughter, Merry, in 1960s New Jersey. When protests against the Vietnam War spread across the country and Merry, to the horror of her parents, joins a group of radicals who fight American policy, the family idyll is shattered. Gala Premieres Arthouse Piccadilly press

14:00 AUF AUGENHÖHE

(Germany) 2016, 98 mins. German. Dir: Evi Goldbrunner, Joachim Dollhopf Cast: Luis Vorbach, Jordan Prentice. Since his mother’s death, 10-year-old Michi has lived in a children’s home. When he discovers the address of his previously unknown father, Michi is faced with a lesson in acceptance. ZFF for Kids Arena 3

14:15 600 MILES See box, above

15:00

Border Lines Corso 4

16:30 ABULELE

FESTIVAL: SUNDAY SEPT 25 14:15 600 MILES

(Mexico) 2015, 85 mins. English, Spanish. Dir: Gabriel Ripstein. Cast: Tim Roth, Kristyan Ferrer, Harrison Thomas, Noe Hernandez, Monica del Carmen, Amando Hernandez. Arnulfo Rubio smuggles weapons from the US to Mexico for his father’s deadly drug cartel. What he does not know is that Hank Harris of the US Federal Police he longs to offer them another life. Despite his desire to free himself of his father’s controlling grasp, Chad agrees to go along with his latest planed heist. International Feature Film/ Competition Arthouse Le Paris

15:15

TRESPASS AGAINST US

THE PLEASURE IS MINE

(UK) 2016, 98 mins. English. Dir: Adam Smith. Cast: Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Rory Kinnear, Lyndsey Marshal. The Cutler family spend their time raiding large estates, taking wild car rides and tormenting the police. Chad is completely loyal to his patriarchal father, yet finds himself increasingly at odds with their way of life. Although his wife and kids stand by him,

(Mexico) 2015. 93 mins. Spanish. Dir: Elisa Miller. Cast: Flor Edwarda Gurrola, Fausto Alzati. Rita, an academic, and Mateo, a car mechanic, love each other with a passion. Together, the two urbanites set out to build a new life for themselves at the hacienda of Mateo’s father. However, their young love is soon put to the test. New World View: Mexico Corso 3

10 Screen International at Zurich September 25-26, 2016

SIMPLY LIVING

Authority’s ATF has been trailing him for some time. Following a disastrous encounter between the two, Arnulfo decides to take the agent hostage and hand him over to his people back in Mexico. During the long journey across the Arizonian desert, the two slowly begin to bond, leaving Arnulfo wondering which side he is actually fighting for. New World View: Mexico Corso 4

15:30 JEAN OF THE JONESES

(Canada, US) 2016, 86 mins. English. Dir: Stella Meghie. Cast: Taylour Paige, Erica Ash, Sherri Shepherd, Gloria Reuben, Michelle Hurst, Francois Arnaud, Mamoudou Athie. When Jean, a promising author stuck in a creative rut, is thrown out of her boyfriend’s apartment, the stylish twentysomething is left at the mercy of her welloff, female, middle-class Jamaican-American relative’s hospitality. Focusing more on her former relationship than forging future plans, Jean is oblivious to the fact that the perfect man has been right under her nose for quite some time. International Feature Film/ Competition Corso 2

(Switzerland) 2016, 99 mins. German, Swiss German. Dir: Hans Haldimann. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Filmpodium

ZERO DAYS

(US) 2016, 114 mins. English. Dir: Alex Gibney. In 2010, a shocking discovery was made by international security experts. A self-replicating computer worm called “Stuxnet” spread around the world and threatened to shut down industrial control systems, such as water works and pipelines. It is believed that the malware was originally unleashed by American and Israeli secret services in order to destroy a key part of an Iranian nuclear facility. Alex Gibney’s documentary thriller centres on the current and future dangers of a global cyberwar. Gala Premieres Arena 4

15:45 LITTLE MEN

(US) 2016, 85 mins. English. Dir: Ira Sachs. Cast: Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Ehle, Paulina Garcia, Theo Taplitz, Michael Barbieri. Brooklyn in the summertime. Together with his family, shy teenager Jake moves into

the house of his recently deceased grandfather. The lively Tony and his single mother, who runs a small sewing studio on the ground floor, live under the same roof. Jake and Tony soon realise they have a lot in common — computer games, art and girls. While the two boys forge their friendship, the adults around them enter an increasingly harsh conflict. Gala Premieres Corso 1

16:00 CAMERAPERSON

(US) 2016, 102 mins. Arabic, Bosnian, English, Haussa, Dari, Fur. Dir: Kirsten Johnson. “She sees everything, we are blind,” says the philosopher Jacques Derrida about the person who accompanies him wherever he goes. Kirsten Johnson has been travelling the world as a camerawoman for the past 25 years. A deeply moving essay about filmmaking and the absurdity that is called life. International Documentary Film/Competition Arthouse Piccadilly

16:15 KIKI

Sweden, (US) 2016, 94 mins. English. Dir: Sara Jordeno. Cast: Chi Chi Mizrahi, Gia Marie Love, Divo Pink Lady, Izana “Zariya Mizrahi” Vidal, Christopher Waldorf,

(Israel) 2015, 96 mins. Hebrew. Dir: Jonathan Geva Cast: Yoav Sadian Rosenberg, Bar Minali, Idan Barkai. Ancient legends warn children about the Abulele, enormous, furry and sometimes dangerous monsters who are able to hide among the human race by making themselves invisible... except to special children in need of a friend. ZFF for Kids Arena 5

16:45 BORDERLAND BLUES

(Germany, US) 2016, 73 mins. English, Spanish. Dir: Gudrun Gruber. “The Frontier” or “La Frontera” is the undulating landscape of the Sonora Desert in Arizona, which once was a symbol of freedom on the horizon of the American West — and also a region plagued by recurrent territorial struggles. Currently, a high steel fence stretches over several miles strictly separating the US and Mexico into two territories. Every year, the remains of hundreds of migrants are retrieved from the area. Accompanying various locals, NGO workers and self-proclaimed border guards from the region, film-maker Gudrun Gruber raises the question of whether the latest border control technology will bring peace to the area, or merely increase the number of deaths. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arena 3

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17:45 EUROPE, SHE LOVES

(Switzerland, Germany) 2016, 100 mins. Greek, English, Estnisch, Spanish. Dir: Jan Gassmann. Zurich-based film-maker Jan Gassmann teamed up with cinematographer Ramon Giger and travelled Europe to capture the realities of life faced by four couples. A poetic yet blunt insight into the intimate attitude towards life of a generation of young people who see themselves robbed of any future prospects. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arthouse Le Paris

FESTIVAL: SUNDAY SEPT 25 18:15 SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU

OPERATION AVALANCHE

(US) 2016, 94 mins. English. Dir: Matt Johnson. Cast: Matt Johnson, Owen Williams, Josh Boles. At the height of the Cold War in 1967, the heads of the CIA fear a Russian spy may jeopardise the first moon landing. Under the guise of documentary film-makers, two agents infiltrate NASA’s headquarters in order to expose the mole. Soon they have a plan to avert a national disaster. International Feature Film/ Competition Corso 2

18:00 180°

(Switzerland) 2010, 93 mins. German, Turkish, Swiss German. Dir: Cihan Inan. Cast: Christopher Buchholz, Sophie Rois, Michael Neuenschwander. The lives of a handful of people from Zurich are turned upside down. Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections

THE SWISSMAKERS

(Switzerland) 1978, 104 mins. Swiss German. Dir: Rolf Lyssy. Cast: Emil Steinberger, Walo Luond, Beatrice Kessler, Wolfgang Stendar. Civil servants Max Bodmer and Moritz

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(US) 2016, 84 mins. English. Dir: Richard Tanne. Cast: Tika Sumpter, Parker Sawyers, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Phil Ed Van Lear. On a sunny Sunday morning in Chicago in 1989, the young, confident attorney Barack Obama makes his way to his attractive and ambitious superior Fischer have the unenviable task of examining in great detail the lives of foreigners who wish to become Swiss citizens. Corso 3 Retro: Marcel Hoehn

18:15 PANAMERICAN MACHINERY

Michelle Robinson. For him, it is their first date, while for her, it is nothing more than a meeting between colleagues. However; she reluctantly plays along. Not only does she end up accompanying Barack to the municipal assembly but also to an art exhibition, a trip to the park and lunch. Special Screenings Arena 4

illusion of a carefree life disappears — which the employees of this unique engineering factory refuse to accept. New World View: Mexico Arthouse Piccadilly

SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU See box, above

18:30 LA LA LAND

(US) 2016, 126 mins. English. Dir: Damien Chazelle. Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend, JK Simmons, Rosemarie DeWitt. Two dreamers cross paths in Los Angeles — Mia, a passionate, aspiring actress who is eaten up by loneliness, and charismatic Sebastian, who is working on his career as a jazz musician but has never made it past performing small gigs. Chance has decreed that the two will meet

one day — and fall in love. Their budding relationship is put to the test when they both begin to become more successful. What once drew them together and united them in their struggles suddenly threatens to tear them apart. Gala Premieres Corso 1

18:45 NATIONAL BIRD

(US) 2016, 92 mins. English, Dari. Dir: Sonia Kennebeck. What goes on in the mind of the person who decides who is to be targeted in a drone attack? And how many civilian lives can be put at risk in an attack? For years, Heather, Daniel and Lisa have worked for the US Air Force’s secret drone programme. Disillusioned by the methods of their former employer and traumatised by the immense suffering they caused in Afghanistan and Pakistan while safely sitting at an office desk in the US, they decide to make their story public. Border Lines Corso 4

YOU’RE KILLING ME SUSANA

(Mexico) 2016, 102 mins. English, Spanish. Dir: Roberto Sneider. Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Veronica Echegui, Ashley

Hinshaw, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Jadyn Wong, Bjorn Hlynur Haraldsson. Eligio wakes one morning to discover his beloved wife, Susana, has packed her bags and disappeared without further explanation. The temperamental charmer, initially clueless, soon discovers that Susana has travelled to the US to participate in a workshop for emerging writers. Eligio immediately boards a plane in pursuit. Having arrived in Iowa, he must overcome countless misunderstandings before eventually finding his wife. However, far from pleased by Eligio’s childish yet romantic expedition, Susana has other ideas. Gala Premieres Filmpodium

19:00 WEINER

(US) 2016, 96 mins. English. Dir: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg. Cast: Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin. International Documentary Film/Competition Arena 3

19:15 STATELESS — KLAUS ROZSA, PHOTOGRAPHER

(Switzerland) 2016, 96 mins. German, Hungarian, Swiss German. Dir: Erich Schmid. Cast: Klaus

Rozsa, Olga Majumder Rozsa, Egon Rozsa Jurinkovits. For decades, political activist and photographer Klaus Rozsa remained a thorn in the side of the Swiss police. Having fled Hungary in 1956, he was raised in Switzerland by a Jewish father who survived Auschwitz. Perhaps it was his close proximity to this experience that repeatedly led him and his camera to places clouded by injustice. Director Erich Schmid draws a portrait of an active Zurich contemporary and tells the story of an eventful life. Special Screenings Arena 7

20:15 DANCER

(UK) 2016, 85 mins. English, Russian, Ukrainian. Dir: Steven Cantor. Cast: Sergei Polunin. Gala Premieres Arthouse Le Paris

20:30 IM NIRGENDWO

(Switzerland) 2016, 88 mins. Swiss German. Dir: Katalin Godros. Cast: Ursina Lardi, Eugene Boateng, Marcus Signer, Carol Schuler, Stefan Merki. In front of an alpine hut in the Bernese Oberland lies the body of an unidentified African. Quick-witted reporter Charlotte is sent to investigate the case, initially against her will, but soon becomes embroiled in a maelstrom of information and conflicting theories. Intrigued by the sheer number of uncertainties, the hard-boiled reporter becomes personally involved — not only because during her enquiries she realises that she met the deceased on the streets of Berne just a couple of days before, but also because the article forces her to remember her own missing daughter. Special Screenings Arena 4

September 25-26, 2016 Screen International at Zurich 11

SCREENINGS

MONDAY SEPT 26

LADY MACBETH

(UK) 2016 89 mins. English. Dir: William Oldroyd. Cast: Florence Pugh, Christopher Fairbank, Cosmo Jarvis, Bill Fellows.

10:00 EGON SCHIELE — DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

(Austria, Luxemburg) 2016, 109 mins. German. Dir: Dieter Berner. Cast: Noah Saavedra, Maresi Riegner, Valerie Pachner, Marie Jung, Elisabeth Umlauft. The biopic of a radical expressionist of the Viennese modern age.

International Feature Film/ Competition Corso 2

MARY & JOHNNY

(Switzerland) 2011, 76 mins. Swiss German. Dir: Samuel Schwarz, Julian M Grunthal. Cast: Nadine Vinzens, Philippe Graber, Nils Althaus. Summer, heat, Zurifäscht: a turbulent night with tricksters, amorous errors and dashed hopes. Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections

20:45 CLUB SANDWICH See box, right

THE EREMITES

(Germany, Austria) 2016, 110 mins. German. Dir: Ronny Trocker. Cast: Ingrid Burkhard, Andreas Lust, Orsi Toth, Hannes Perkmann, Peter Mitterrutzner. Cold winter days envelop a secluded mountain farm in Southern Tyrol. The relationship between the shy thirtysomething Albert and his omnipresent mother, Marianne, who still pulls the strings in his life, seems just as cold. Albert is the farming family’s last remaining child and, not overjoyed by the idea, is acutely aware that he will take over the remote estate from his parents one day. Wanting to spare him this difficult life, Marianne gets him a job at a stone quarry down in the valley. Albert remains unconvinced by the idea — until he meets the Hungarian kitchen help Paola. When his father dies in a tragic accident one day, mother and son are once again forced together, and Albert is left to find out what it is that he really wants in life. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arthouse Piccadilly

Gala Premieres Arena 7 press

10:30 BRIDGET JONES’S BABY

FESTIVAL: SUNDAY SEPT 25 20:45 CLUB SANDWICH

(Mexico) 2013, 82 mins. Spanish. Dir: Fernando Eimbcke. Cast: Maria Renee Prudencio, Lucio Gimenez Cacho, Danae Reynaud Romero. Single mother Paloma and her 16-year-old son Hector spend a week vacationing at a hotel complex on the Mexican coast 21:15 PERSONAL AFFAIRS

(Israel, Palestine) 2016, 90 mins. Arabic. Dir: Maha Haj. Cast: Sanaa Shawahdeh, Mahmoud Shawahdeh, Doraid Liddawi, Hanan Hillo, Ziad Bakri. In Nazareth, Nabeela and Saleh spend every evening in front of the television — after long years of marriage, the two have nothing more to say to each other. While she sits knitting a pullover, he spends his time searching Wikipedia for curious knowledge about plants and animals. Their children have long since flown the nest. Be it Israel, Palestine or Sweden, political conflict or lack thereof, despite their constant lively exchange

12 Screen International at Zurich September 25-26, 2016

during off-peak season. Sunshine, swimming, music and club sandwiches brighten their days. Nothing, it seems, may disturb their idyll or close relationship, until one day Jazmin, a girl the same age as Hector, appears and turns the mother-son microcosm upside down. New World View: Mexico Corso 3

of views, each member of this family has a hard time putting in words what they actually want to express. International Feature Film/ Competition Filmpodium

WAR ON EVERYONE

(UK) 2016 98 mins. English. Dir: John Michael McDonagh. Cast: Michael Pena, Alexander Skarsgard, Theo James, Tessa Thompson. Gala Premieres Corso 1

21:30 HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

(Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic, Qatar) 2016 88 mins. English, Croatian, Slovenian,

Serbisch. Dir: Ziga Virc. Cast: Slavoj Zizek. At the height of the Cold War in the mid 1960s, America is determined to win the race of landing on the moon against the Soviets by any means possible. In a classified multibillion-dollar deal, America purchases Yugoslavia’s entire space programme from Tito, its president and welcome ally. A spectacular deal that has indirect yet tragic consequences for both countries: the assassination of US President Kennedy and the fall of the Yugoslavian state. How exactly are these events connected, however? And further, what does the popular philosopher Slavoj Zizek have to do with this unbelievable piece of world history? International Documentary Film/Competition Corso 4

21:30 THE RECONQUEST

(Spain) 2016, 108 mins. Spanish. Dir: Jonas Trueba. Cast: Francesco Carril, Itsaso Arana, Pablo Hoyos, Candela Recio, Aura Garrido. Nobody ever forgets their first true love. Manuela and Olmo were aware of this even at the tender age of 15. Now that

they are both over 30, they live in different worlds. The magic of young love seems long gone. With trepidation yet familiarity, the two suddenly find themselves facing each other — not entirely by accident — in Madrid, their native city. Old letters surface, sparks turn to flames and the unanswered “what if…?” question arises. Window: San Sebastian Arena 3

21:45 OFFICE

(Hong Kong, China) 2015, 119 mins. Cantonese, Mandarin. Dir: Johnnie To. Cast: Chow Yun Fat, Sylvia Chang, Eason Chan, Wang Ziyi, Lang Yueting. In the wake of the global financial crisis, chairman Ho ChungPing and CEO Winnie Chang prepare to save their billion-dollar company. The turbulence of the economy is matched only by that of the company’s employees. An unwanted web of intrigue, love and work is spun. A takedown of capitalist corruption shrewdly packed as a song-and-dance extravaganza. Window: Hong Kong Arena 7

(UK, US, France) 2016, 123 mins. English. Dir: Sharon Maguire. Cast: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Emma Thompson. Bridget Jones is back. Fortysomething and realising her life has not quite worked out as planned, she decides to focus on her job as a top news producer after having broken up with Mark Darcy. For once, Bridget seems to have everything completely under control. Who needs a husband and child when surrounded by friends and enjoying a highly successful career? Her love life takes a turn when Bridget meets a dashing American named Jack, a suitor who is everything that Mr Darcy was not. In an unlikely twist she finds herself pregnant, being uncertain as to who the father is, Jack or Darcy. In the third instalment of the Helen Fielding franchise, Bridget once again finds herself confronted with life’s little challenges. Gala Premieres Arthouse Piccadilly press

11:30 THE CONFESSIONS

(Italy, France) 2016, 108 mins. English, French, Italian. Dir: Roberto Ando. Cast: Toni Servillo, Daniel Auteuil, Connie Nielsen, Moritz Bleibtreu, Pierfrancesco Favino, Marie-Josee

www.screendaily.com

Croze, Lambert Wilson. Behind the walls of a luxurious hotel complex on Germany’s North Sea coast, the finance ministers of the most powerful industrial nations have been invited by France’s Daniel Roche, head of the IMF, to hold a secret summit. To everyone’s surprise, Italian monk Roberto Salus has also been invited — a mysterious, level-headed man who is present for a very specific reason: Roche would like him to take his confession the night before the final, decisive meeting. The next morning, Roche is found dead. Gala Premieres Arena 4 press

11:45 WELCOME TO NORWAY

(Norway) 2016, 95 mins. English, Norwegian. Dir: Rune Denstad Langlo. Cast: Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Olivier Mukuta, Slimane Dazi, Henriette Steenstrup, Renate Reinsve. Deep in the north of Norway, Primus, a jovial loudmouth with a penchant for xenophobic banter, is the third generation to run what looks more like a building site than a should-be hotel — and he does not have any money left to finish the project. To cover the renovation costs, Primus comes up with an idea: he decides to convert the hotel into refugee accomodation and to compel the state to foot the bill. Fifty freezing refugees, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration and a depressed wife quickly become more than he can handle. As luck would have it, however, there is an intelligent, warmhearted Eritrean polyglot present, Abedi, who lends him a hand. International Feature Film/ Competition Arena 3 press

12:15 A TASTE OF INK

his father he unwillingly has to leave Berlin and return to his longforgotten hometown. To his surprise, he finds a summer paradise. Susu, his teenage love, is still residing there and he sets about painting the town red with her and his old friends, who rediscover their youth, which they choose to celebrate extensively. But despite all their fears regarding the future, they cannot ignore the greatest challenge facing them — life. The story of a generation that simply lets things happen,

FESTIVAL: MONDAY SEPT 26 13:30 AFTER SPRING

(US) 2016, 101 mins. Arabic, English, Korean. Dir: Ellen Martinez, Steph Ching. It was intended to be nothing more than an intermediate station. However, about 80,000 people have been living at the ‘Zaatari’ camp in Jordan, close to the Syrian border for 13:00 THE PACT

(Poland) 2015, 50 mins. Polish. Dir: Marek Lechki. Cast: Marcin Dorocinski, Marta Nieradkiewicz,

several years. They attempt to create a new, if only temporary, living environment for themselves in one of the world’s largest refugee camps. After Spring not only allows us insight into the painful histories of three families but also tells of their daily struggles. Border Lines Arena 3

Magdalena Cielecka, Jacek Poniedzialek. TVision Corso 3 and Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections

Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arena 7 press

13:OO THE EREMITES

(Germany, Austria) 2016, 110 mins. German. Dir: Ronny Trocker. Cast: Ingrid Burkhard, Andreas Lust, Orsi Toth, Hannes Perkmann. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Arthouse Piccadilly

13:15 HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

(Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Czech Republic, Qatar) 2016 88 mins. English, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbisch. Dir: Ziga Virc. Cast: Slavoj Zizek.

International Documentary Film/Competition Corso 4

13:30 AFTER SPRING See box, left

14:00 NOWHERE

(France) 2016, 80 mins. French. Dir: Morgan Simon. Cast: Kevin Azais, Monia Chokri, Nathan Willcocks. Vincent, still of tender age, has already tattooed most of his body and shredded his voice with his post-hardcore band — his way of venting his frustrations and desires. Ever since his mother died, he has shared his time between Porte de Clignancourt and Bastille, between a piercer job he is unhappy with and

15:00 FULL MOON

(Switzerland, Germany, France) 1998, 155 mins. French, Italian, Swiss German. Dir: Fredi M Murer. Cast: Hanspeter Muller, Lilo Baur, Benedict Freitag, Mariebelle Kuhn. Twelve children disappear from across the country on one full-moon morning. Parents and police are equally puzzled. There are no kidnappers — just one oracular letter for each of the families affected who have until the next full moon to decode the contents. Retro: Marcel Hoehn Filmpodium

his fishmonger father, Herve, who is trying to start a new life with Julia, a younger woman. Vincent is initially appalled by the woman, but the more they get to know each other, the more he becomes intrigued by the beautiful and empathetic woman. Unlike his father, Julia shows an interest in him, even attending one of his gigs. What starts out as a potential path of reconciliation with his father soon implodes. International Feature Film/Competition Arena 7 press

See box, right

www.screendaily.com

September 25-26, 2016 Screen International at Zurich 13

SCREENINGS

FOREVER PURE

FESTIVAL: MONDAY SEPT 26 18:00 THE CONFESSIONS

(Italy, France) 2016, 108 mins. English, French, Italian. Dir: Roberto Ando. Cast: Toni Servillo, Daniel Auteuil, Connie Nielsen, Moritz Bleibtreu, Pierfrancesco Favino, Marie-Josee Croze, Lambert Wilson. Behind the walls of a luxurious hotel complex on Germany’s North Sea coast, the finance ministers of the most powerful industrial 15:30 NATIONAL BIRD

(US) 2016, 92 mins. English, Dari. Dir: Sonia Kennebeck. Border Lines Corso 2

15:45 A FAMILY AFFAIR

(Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark) 2015, 115 mins. Dutch. Dir: Tom Fassaert. “Marianne Hertz: model and perfect mother” – is how a magazine of the 1950s described filmmaker Tom Fassaert‘s grandmother. On his 30th birthday, he receives a mysterious invitation from this 95-year-old woman to visit her in

16:15

nations have been invited by France’s Daniel Roche, head of the IMF, to hold a secret summit. To everyone’s surprise, Italian monk Roberto Salus has also been invited — a mysterious, level-headed man who is present for a very specific reason: Roche would like him to take his confession the night before the final, decisive meeting. The next morning, Roche is found dead. Gala Premieres Arthouse Le Paris

South Africa. The only thing he knows about her are the myths and predominantly negative stories his father told him. She was a famous model in the 1950s who went through countless men, and a mother that put her two sons into a children’s home. Fassaert decides to accept her invitation. Once in South Africa, he begins to peel back the layers of a personality that seems as narcissistic as it is complex. But when she makes an unexpected confession, his venture becomes much more complicated. International Documentary Film/Competition Arena 3 press

14 Screen International at Zurich September 25-26, 2016

I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY

(China) 2016, 128 mins. Mandarin. Dir: Feng Xiaogang. Cast: Fan Bingbing, Guo Tao, Da Peng, Zhang Jiayi, Yu Hewei. In order to get one of the rare secondary dwellings available, Li Xuelian and her husband come up with a plan: they file for divorce. Li, however, didn’t reckon with the deceitfulness of her husband. Six months after the divorce, he unceremoniously marries another woman. A disaster for Li, who has lost her fraudulent husband as well as her honour. In order to salvage her reputation and convince the corrupt authorities of her innocence, she sets of on a years-long campaign, which takes her from the countryside to the Chinese capital. Gala Premieres Arena 7

16:15 THE RECONQUEST

(Spain) 2016, 108 mins. Spanish. Dir: Jonas Trueba. Cast: Francesco Carril, Itsaso Arana, Pablo Hoyos, Candela Recio, Aura Garrido. Window: San Sebastian Corso 3

17:45

18:15

A TASTE OF INK

BRIDGET JONES’S BABY

International Feature Film/ Competition Corso 2

(UK, US, France) 2016 123 mins. English. Dir: Sharon Maguire. Cast: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Patrick Dempsey.

18:00 THE CONFESSIONS See box, left

Gala Premieres Corso 1

(UK, Israel) 2016, 85 mins. Hebrew, Russian, Chechen. Dir: Maya Zinshtein. Cast: Eli Cohen, Arcadi Gaydamak, Ariel Harush, Ramzan Kadyrov. Founded in 1963, Beitar Jerusalem is the most popular and controversial football club in Israel, known for not tolerating Arabs in its team. To the surprise of many, in the middle of the 2012/13 season, the RussianIsraeli oligarch and owner of Beitar, Arcadi Gaydamak, engages two Chechens Muslims — which is perceived as an insult by many fans. “Forever pure” are the words echoing from the stands. The fans demand the expulsion of the Arabs, bombarding the two players with degrading abuse. This marks the beginning of a team’s humiliating downfall. International Documentary Film/Competition Arena 3

FESTIVAL: MONDAY SEPT 26 19:15 CLASH

(Egypt, France, Germany) 2016, 97 mins. Arabic. Dir: Mohamed Diab. Cast: Nelly Karim, Hany Adel, Tarek Abdel Aziz, Ahmed Malek. An ordinary day, the year is 2013. Egypt descends into chaos following a national uprising and a military coup. While Mursi supporters and military personnel battle it out on the streets, people of various groups find

themselves crammed into the back of a police van: Muslim brothers, soldiers, Christians, progressives and conservatives, men and women, violent and non-violent. Tensions inevitably rise. As viewers, we are at the very centre of the action, and when the truck door finally opens, we, along with everybody else present, want to slam the door closed again. Border Lines Corso 3

www.screendaily.com

20:30 EGON SCHIELE – DEATH AND THE MAIDEN See box, below

20:30 THE LAST DAYS OF SWISSAIR

(Switzerland) 2006, 135 mins. Swiss German. Dir: Michael Steiner. Cast: Hanspeter, Muller-Drossaart, Gilles Tschudi, Laszlo I Kish, Michael Neuenschwander, Stefan Gubser. Michael Steiner’s brilliant feature film about the tragic downfall of Swissair in 2001. Already a classic. Bellevue Manifesta 11 Pavillon of Reflections

20:30 FESTIVAL: MONDAY SEPT 26 20:15 WELCOME TO NORWAY

the project. To cover the renovation costs, Primus comes up with an idea: he decides to convert the hotel into refugee accomodation and to compel the state to foot the bill. Fifty freezing refugees, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration and a depressed wife quickly become more than he can handle. As luck would have it, however, there is an intelligent, warm-hearted Eritrean polyglot present, Abedi, who lends him a hand. International Feature Film/Competition Corso 2

18:30

TWO LOTTERY TICKETS

WAREHOUSED

(Romania) 2016, 86 mins. Romanian. Dir: Paul Negoescu. Cast: Dorian Boguta, Dragos Bucur, Alexandru Papadopol, Serban Pavlu. A down-on-his-luck man wins ¤6m playing the lottery. However, the winning ticket has just been nabbed by two wannabe gangsters, so he sets off on a madcap journey to find it.

(Mexico) 2015, 90 mins. Spanish. Dir: Jack Zagha. Cast: Jose Carlos Ruiz, Hoze Melendez. For the past 39 years the dutiful Mr Lino has worked as a supervisor in a warehouse. He is about to retire with only five days left to teach young Nin the ropes. However, as the two get to know each other, Nin realises that hardly anything is ever delivered here.

International Feature Film/ Competition Arthouse Piccadilly

www.screendaily.com

New World View: Mexico Filmpodium

THE OTHER HALF OF THE SKY

(Switzerland) 2016, 80 mins. English, Chinese, Mandarin. Dir: Patrik Soergel. Cast: Zhang Lan, Zhou Yi, Dong Mingzhu. They are four of the most successful businesswomen in China. How were these careers built?

A topical peek behind the scenes of an election campaign carried out in the digital age. International Documentary Film/Competition Arena 7

SAUSAGE PARTY

19:15 CLASH See box, opposite page

20:15 WELCOME TO NORWAY See box, left

(US) 2016, 89 mins. English. Dir: Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon. Cast: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Jonah Hill, Bill Hader, James Franco.

International Documentary Film/Competition Corso 4

18:45 LE VOYAGEUR

(Switzerland) 2016 86 mins. Bulgarian, English, French. Dir: Timo von Gunten. Cast: Julie Dray, Gilles Tschudi, Alec Cohen, Valeri Lekov. Triggered by the space probe ‘Voyageur’ returning to Earth, Virginie meets her dead father on a train one night. She sets off with him on a metaphysical journey through Bulgaria, where her grief catches up with her. Special Screenings Arena 4

19:00 WEINER

(US) 2016, 96 mins. English. Dir: Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg. Cast: Anthony Weiner, Huma Abedin.

FESTIVAL: MONDAY SEPT 26 20:30 EGON SCHIELE – DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

(Austria, Luxemburg) 2016, 109 mins. German. Dir: Dieter Berner. Cast: Noah Saavedra, Maresi Riegner, Valerie Pachner, Marie Jung, Elisabeth Umlauft. Biopic of a radical expressionist of the Viennese modern age. At the beginning of the 20th century Egon Schiele is one of the most provocative artists in Vienna. His life and work are driven by beautiful women and an era that is

coming to an end. Two women will have a lasting impact on him — his sister and first muse Gerti, and 17-year-old Wally, arguably Schiele’s one true love, immortalised in his famous painting “Death and the Maiden”. Schiele’s radical paintings scandalise Viennese society while daring artists like Gustav Klimt and art agents alike are sensing the exceptional. But Egon Schiele is also prepared to go beyond his own pain and to sacrifice love and life for his art. Gala Premieres Arthouse Le Paris

September 25-26, 2016 Screen International at Zurich 15

SCREENINGS

21:30 AMERICAN PASTORAL

(US) 2016, 109 mins. English. Dir: Ewan McGregor. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, Uzo Aduba, David Strathairn, Valorie Curry. Gala Premieres Arena 4

NOWHERE

FESTIVAL: MONDAY SEPT 26 21:00 PANAMERICAN MACHINERY

(Mexico) 2016, 87 mins. Spanish. Dir: Joaquin del Paso. Cast: Javier Zaragoza, Ramiro Orozco, Irene Ramirez, Edmundo Mosqueira, Delfino Lopez. Telephones ring constantly at “Maquinaria Panamericana”. Rather than an ordinary office, this is a place to gossip, Between tinned food, boxes and glass jars, on an endless supermarket shelf, Frank the little sausage is awaiting his big day: the instance in which he will be picked up and taken to paradise. When he along with his shelf mates finally makes it into a cart, they are suddenly faced with complete horror in the kitchen of their buyers: potatoes are being skinned alive while not even baby carrots are spared! Frank and his fellow sufferers set off on a quest to warn

visit her in South Africa. exchange pictures of cats or take a nap. To hell with productivity and efficiency — as long as the salaries are delivered at the end of the month, who should even care? Until one day the good-natured patron Don Alejandro dies and the illusion of a carefree life disappears — which the employees of this unique engineering factory refuse to accept. New World View: Mexico Filmpodium

their friends back at the supermarket before it is too late. Special Screenings Arena 3

20:45 A FAMILY AFFAIR

16 Screen International at Zurich September 25-26, 2016

International Documentary Film/Competition Arthouse Piccadilly

21:00 AMERICAN PASTORAL

(US) 2016, 109 mins. English. Dir: Ewan McGregor. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, Uzo Aduba, David Strathairn, Valorie Curry. On the surface it seems that Seymour “Swede” Levov and his wife, Dawn, are the perfect American couple. The celebrated former athlete, who runs his father’s business, and the former beauty queen live an orderly life together with their daughter, Merry, in 1960s New Jersey. When protests against the Vietnam War spread across the country and Merry, to the horror of her parents, joins a group of radicals who fight American policy, however, the family idyll is shattered. As the young rebels become embroiled in a deadly bomb attack on a family friend, Merry disappears, breaking off all contact with her parents. Swede would

do anything to find his daughter — but his world spirals increasingly out of control. Based on the Philip Roth novel. Gala Premieres Corso 1

PANAMERICAN MACHINERY See box, left

21:15 OPERATION AVALANCHE

(US) 2016, 94 mins. English. Dir: Matt Johnson. Cast: Matt Johnson, Owen Williams, Josh Boles. At the height of the Cold War in 1967, the heads of the CIA fear a Russian spy may jeopardise the first moon landing. Under the guise of documentary filmmakers, the overzealous newcomer agents Matt and Owen infiltrate NASA’s headquarters in order to expose the mole. As the two detectives eavesdrop on secret internal calls, they make a shocking discovery — and soon come up with an ingenious plan to avert a national disaster. International Feature Film/ Competition Arena 7

(Germany) 2016, 105 mins. German. Dir: Matthias Starte. Cast: Ludwig Trepte, Saskia Rosendahl, Amelie Kiefer, Jella Haase, Dennis Mojen, Frederik Gotz, Ben Munchow. Business administration student Danny has not yet truly arrived in the world of adulthood. Following the death of his father he unwillingly has to leave Berlin for his long-forgotten hometown. To his surprise, he finds a summer paradise. Susu, his teenage love, is still there, and he sets about painting the town red with her and his old friends, rediscovering their youth along the way. Focus Switzerland, Germany, Austria/ Competition Corso 4

22:00 A MONSTER WITH A THOUSAND HEADS

(Mexico) 2015, 75 mins. Spanish. Dir: Rodrigo Pla. Cast: Jana Raluy, Sebastian Aguirre Boeda, Hugo Albores, Nora Huerta, Daniel Gimenez Cacho. “A wounded animal.” Sonia Bonet desperately requires access to medical care for her ill husband. The insurance company remains indifferent to her needs — a process that seems arbitrary; a whole system that seems corrupt — and Sonia’s despair leads to a willingness to do anything. She takes matters into her own hands and kidnaps the doctor responsible, thus catapulting both herself and her son into a spiral of violence.

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New World View: Mexico Corso 3