SWISS FILMS Previews Visions du Réel 2023

SWISS FILMS PREVIEWS

NYON 2023

SWISS FILMS PREVIEWS VISIONS DU RÉEL 2023

T +41 79 303 58 69

SWISS FILMS TEAM

ANDREAS BÜHLMANN Head of Festivals & Markets abuehlmann@swissfilms.ch

CHARLOTTE DUCOS Consultant Documentary Film & Marketing Strategies cducos@swissfilms.ch

1STFEATURE

ERUTAEFTS

EXPECTED

FALL 2023

DETCEPXE

#TIMESUP KYRGYZSTAN

written & directed by Leigh Iacobucci

A young pop star in Kyrgyzstan fights for women’s rights through her music and activism, while turbulent political shifts make her fight even harder. Will the conservative government silence her right to protest (or sing) freely?

This film reveals the difficulties in sparking a feminist movement in a society deeply rooted in a conservative interpretation of Islam.

PRODUCTION AND WORLD RIGHTS:

Luna Films, Geneva www.lunafilms.ch

LOOKING FOR:

World Sales

Int. Distribution

Int. Festival Premiere

CONTACT:

Véronique Vergari

Luna Films

veronique@lunafilms.ch

SWITZERLAND

Documentary, 70 min.

ORIGINAL LANGUAGES:

English, Kirghiz

PRODUCTION:

Luna Films, Geneva

PRODUCERS:

Véronique Vergari, Agnès Boutruche

LEIGH IACOBUCCI

* 1977. With over seventeen years of production experience and a graduate of Stanford University’s Documentary Film Production programme, Leigh Iacobucci has honed her skills in many areas of production. She has worked as a cinematographer for several theatrical-release documentary films and as a field producer and camerawoman for multiple television networks in the USA. She currently works as an independent producer, camerawoman and editor for multiple UN agencies and is based in Geneva.

ECHTE SCHWEIZER SWISS CITIZEN SOLDIERS

written & directed by Luka Popadić

Saâd, Thuruban and Andrija are Swiss citizens and therefore subject to military service. Like thousands of other Swiss fellows, they spend four weeks every year practising the defence of their country. They are often called “secondos”, children of migrants. The film provides a long overdue cinematic insight into the Swiss army and brings the concepts of homeland and identity up to date.

LUKA POPADIĆ

* 1980. Luka Popadić’s films are as varied and surprising as his biography. The Swiss with Serbian roots returned to his parents’ home country in 2009, and graduated with a Master’s degree in Film Directing from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade in 2014. As an assistant director he worked in Chicago and Berlin before directing his own films. After several award winning short films, SWISS CITIZEN SOLDIERS is his first documentary feature.

EXPECTED

2023

DETCEPXE

SWITZERLAND

Documentary, 80 min.

ORIGINAL LANGUAGES:

Swiss-German, French

PRODUCTION:

Beauvoir Films, Geneva / SRF / RTS

PRODUCERS:

Aline Schmid, Adrian Blaser

WORLD RIGHTS:

Beauvoir Films, Geneva www.beauvoirfilms.ch

LOOKING FOR:

World Sales

Int. Distribution

Int. Festival Premiere

Television & VOD platforms

CONTACT:

Aline Schmid

Beauvoir Films

aline@beauvoirfilms.ch

EXPECTED

DETCEPXE

THE MIRACULOUS

OF THE WORKING CLASS INTO FOREIGNERS

WORLD RIGHTS:

Dschoint Ventschr

TRANSFORMATION

written & directed by Samir

For more than one hundred years, the Swiss Social Democratic Party and the trade unions shaped Swiss workingclass culture. In the seventies, this culture completely collapsed. The working class of yesteryear are called foreigners. An essay by an immigrant child from a former working class stronghold.

SWITZERLAND / ITALY

Documentary, 90 min.

SAMIR

Filmproduktion AG, Zurich www.dvfilm.ch

LOOKING FOR:

World Sales

Int. Distribution

Int. Festival Premiere

CONTACT:

Sophia Rubischung

Dschoint Ventschr

sophia@dvfilm.ch

ORIGINAL LANGUAGES:

German, French, Italian

PRODUCTION:

Dschoint Ventschr

Filmproduktion AG, Zurich / CDV Casa delle Visioni, Milan / RSI

SWISS PRODUCERS:

Werner Swiss Schweizer, Levin Vieth

* 1955 in Baghdad, raised in Switzerland. Samir belongs to Switzerland’s most acclaimed filmmakers. He cofounded the production company Dschoint Ventschr in 1994 and has been directing and producing both fiction and documentary films since. His renowned documentaries include BABYLON 2 (1993), FORGET BAGHDAD (2002) and the award winning IRAQI ODYSSEY (2014). His most recent fiction film was BAGHDAD IN MY SHADOW (2019).

DIE WUNDERSAME VERWANDLUNG DER ARBEITERKLASSE IN AUSLÄNDER

FALL 2023

DETCEPXE

MISTY – THE ERROLL GARNER STORY

written & directed by Georges Gachot

A film about Erroll Garner, one of the great jazz legends, a pianist of genius, whose life blended tremendous public success with a complex private world: with his all-dominant manager, the women he loved, his musicians and his daughter Kim. Looking at Erroll Garner’s life means living the post-war era of the USA between the consumer boom and the Vietnam War.

GEORGES GACHOT

* 1962 in France. Georges Gachot has joint Swiss and French citizenship. He studied piano and musicology. He is known for his documentaries on musicians, composers and performers, like MARTHA ARGERICH, EVENING TALKS (2002) and his trilogy on Brazilian music: MARIA BETHÂNIA, MUSICA É PERFUME (2005), RIO SONATA (2010) and O SAMBA (2014). With WHERE ARE YOU, JOÃO GILBERTO? (2018) he achieved a new narrative form between fiction and documentary.

SWITZERLAND / FRANCE / GERMANY

Documentary, 95 min.

ORIGINAL LANGUAGE:

English

SCREENPLAY:

Paolo Poloni, Georges Gachot

PRODUCTION:

Gachot Films, Zurich / Idéale

Audience Group, Paris / Achtung Panda! Media GmbH, Berlin / 2 Pilots Filmproduction

GmbH, Cologne / SRF / RTS / RSI /ZDF/ ARTE

SWISS PRODUCER:

Georges Gachot

WORLD SALES:

The Party Film Sales, Paris

www.thepartysales.com

LOOKING FOR:

Int. Distribution

Int. Festival Premiere

Television & VOD platforms

CONTACT:

Estelle de Araujo

The Party Film Sales

EXPECTED

DETCEPXE

MOUNTAIN RIDE

written & directed by Dominique Margot

The mountain is calling. How much longer? After years of mass tourism in the alps, a rethinking is slowly taking place. Whether researchers, artists or philosophers, many are trying to approach the essence of the mountains in new ways. They reflect the contrasting approaches in this critical time when we need to redefine our learned values and actively seek change.

WORLD RIGHTS:

maximage, Zurich www.maximage.ch

LOOKING FOR:

World Sales

Int. Distribution

Int. Festival Premiere

CONTACT:

Brigitte Hofer

maximage

bhofer@maximage.ch

SWITZERLAND

Documentary, 90 min.

ORIGINAL LANGUAGES:

Swiss-German, German

PRODUCTION:

maximage, Zurich / SRF / 3sat

PRODUCERS:

Brigitte Hofer, Cornelia Seitler

DOMINIQUE MARGOT

* 1961. Dominique Margot graduated with a degree in directing from Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in 1999. Her documentaries LA LONGUEUR ET LA LARGEUR DU CIEL (1998), TOUMAST – GUITARS AND KALASHNIKOVS (2010), LOOKING LIKE MY MOTHER (2016) and ZOOM ON CIRCUS (2020) won several prizes. Her latest documentary MOUNTAIN RIDE is in post-production and her next fiction film LE GRAND SHOW is in development.

EXPECTED

2G

written & directed by Karim Sayad

Agadez, 2021. Following the ban of unlawful migrants transportation by the Niger government, four former smugglers struggle to make a living. Facing the lack of perspectives, Ibrahim, Abdelsalam, Daouda and El Bak embark on a journey through the Sahara to join dozens of gold diggers lost in the middle of the desert. Between hopes and disillusions, these men fight to survive in an increasingly hostile and unstable environment.

KARIM SAYAD

* 1984. Karim Sayad has both Swiss and Algerian citizenship. After earning a Master’s degree in International Relations from Geneva’s IHEID, he directed his first short documentary film, BABOR CASANOVA (2015). It was awarded at doclisboa, Festival dei Popoli and at ClermontFerrand ISFF among others. His first feature-length film OF SHEEP AND MEN (2017) premiered within TIFF DOCS and won the Prix de Soleure 2018. MY ENGLISH COUSIN (2019) also premiered in TIFF DOCS.

DETCEPXE

SWITZERLAND

Documentary, 80 min.

ORIGINAL LANGUAGES:

Hausa, Tamacheq, Arabic, French

PRODUCTION:

Close Up Films, Geneva / SRG SSR / RTS

PRODUCERS:

Joëlle Bertossa, Flavia Zanon

WORLD RIGHTS:

Close Up Films, Geneva www.closeupfilms.ch

LOOKING FOR:

World Sales

Int. Distribution

Int. Festival Premiere

CONTACT:

Joëlle Bertossa

Close Up Films

joelle@closeupfilms.ch

NIGHTS GONE BY by Alberto Martín Menacho

PURE UNKNOWN by Valentina Cicogna, Mattia Colombo

WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS by Peter Mettler

BURNING LIGHTS COMPETITION

DREAMERS by Stéphanie Barbey, Luc Peter

NATIONAL COMPETITION

ALLO LA FRANCE by Floriane Devigne

BLOODHOUND by Yamina Zoutat

CHAGRIN VALLEY by Nathalie Berger

FLOATING ISLANDS by Simone Fürbringer, Nicolas Humbert

FOLLOW THE WATER by Pauline Julier, Clément Postec

FULL TANK by Benjamin Bücher, Julia Bünter

HAWAR, OUR BANISHED CHILDREN by Pascale Bourgaux

LA MAISON by Sophie Ballmer

ON REMEMBERING by Laura Gabay

RUÄCH by Andreas Müller, Simon Guy Fässler

THE HUNTER'S SON by Juliette Riccaboni, THE WONDER WAY by Emmanuelle Antille

INTERNATIONAL MEDIUM LENGTH & SHORT FILM COMPETITION

2720 by Basil Da Cunha

AND HOW MISERABLE IS HOME OF THE EVIL by Saleh Kashefi

ANIMAL by Riccardo Giacconi

ZIMMERWALD by Valeria Stucki

OPENING SCENES

SONNENHOF by Tatjana Fanny Honegger

THE ARREST OF C. by Arthur Jaquier

THE WONDERFUL PAIN OF THE WILD BROOM

by Olivia Calcaterra

GRAND ANGLE

PARADISE by Alexander Abaturov HIGHLIGHTS

MY WORST ENEMY by Mehran Tamadon

FILM SALES SUPPORT

for films from Switzerland

A scheme by the European Film Promotion (EFP) for the promotion of European films outside of Europe.

EFP offers Film Sales Support (FSS) for the promotion of films from Switzerland outside of Europe thanks to international measures by the Federal Office of Culture, MEDIA Desk Suisse and SWISS FILMS.

FSS is available for:

FSS Classic

FSS Digital

FSS Digital Plus

FSS Inclusion

Contact: support@swissfilms.ch

VISIT US AT OUR STANDS AT:

Cannes Village International Annecy Mifa

Locarno Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Market

Berlinale European Film Market

SWISS FILMS is supported by