One of the smallest countries in Europe has the highest number of soldiers per capita. This situation is dissected in “Swiss Citizen Soldiers,” one of the six high-end documentaries that will arrive on the circuit in the coming months, and were pitched at the Swiss Films Previews at Visions du Réel, in Nyon, Switzerland.
Swiss Citizen Soldiers
“Switzerland has 200,000 soldiers, by far the most per capita in Europe, and most of these soldiers are switching between their job and military service. Almost a third of them have their roots in another country”: this is the starting point of “Swiss Citizen Soldiers” (Echte Schweizer), by Luka Popadić, his first documentary feature after several short films.
“Eleven months per year, I am a film director. But for one month, I become a captain in the Swiss army,” the director pitched on stage at Visions du Réel. “My parents are from Belgrade.
Swiss Citizen Soldiers
“Switzerland has 200,000 soldiers, by far the most per capita in Europe, and most of these soldiers are switching between their job and military service. Almost a third of them have their roots in another country”: this is the starting point of “Swiss Citizen Soldiers” (Echte Schweizer), by Luka Popadić, his first documentary feature after several short films.
“Eleven months per year, I am a film director. But for one month, I become a captain in the Swiss army,” the director pitched on stage at Visions du Réel. “My parents are from Belgrade.
- 4/29/2023
- by Trinidad Barleycorn
- Variety Film + TV
Swiss productions and co-productions are on the rise, driven in part by federal and regional funders that offer attractive opportunities for domestic and international filmmakers.
Quickly recovering from the impact of the pandemic, the local film industry has gotten off to another strong year with local films and international co-productions.
Elie Grappe’s Swiss-Ukrainian-French title “Olga” premiered at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, while unspooling in Locarno were Lorenz Merz’s “Soul of a Beast” and Swiss-international co-productions like Stefan Jäger’s “Monte Verita” and Laurent Geslin’s nature documentary “Lynx.” Venice saw such Swiss co-productions as “Ariaferma,” by Italian helmer Leonardo Di Costanzo, and Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s “El Gran Movimiento.” And opening this year’s Zurich Film Festival (Zff) was Michael Steiner’s Swiss-German Taliban thriller “And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead.”
The upswing in Swiss cinema is due in no small part to Zurich as a film location,...
Quickly recovering from the impact of the pandemic, the local film industry has gotten off to another strong year with local films and international co-productions.
Elie Grappe’s Swiss-Ukrainian-French title “Olga” premiered at this year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, while unspooling in Locarno were Lorenz Merz’s “Soul of a Beast” and Swiss-international co-productions like Stefan Jäger’s “Monte Verita” and Laurent Geslin’s nature documentary “Lynx.” Venice saw such Swiss co-productions as “Ariaferma,” by Italian helmer Leonardo Di Costanzo, and Bolivian director Kiro Russo’s “El Gran Movimiento.” And opening this year’s Zurich Film Festival (Zff) was Michael Steiner’s Swiss-German Taliban thriller “And Tomorrow We Will Be Dead.”
The upswing in Swiss cinema is due in no small part to Zurich as a film location,...
- 10/3/2021
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Firouzeh Khosrovani’s “Radiograph of a Family,” the story of an Iranian family divided by secularism and religion, Western culture and Islamic revolution, found an ideal co-producer in Zurich-based company Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion.
The film, which premieres in the feature-length competition of the documentary festival IDFA, focuses on the filmmaker’s parents, a secular progressive father and devout Muslim mother. It recounts the family’s life in Switzerland, where her father Hossein studied radiology in Geneva and where Khosrovani spent her early years. While he was very much at home in the French-speaking city, her mother Tayi remained a stranger in a strange land, yearning to return to her native country, and increasingly active in the revolutionary fervor that would soon usher in a new political reality in Iran.
The film’s subject matter and connection to Switzerland made it a perfect fit for Dschoint Ventschr. Established in 1994 by filmmakers...
The film, which premieres in the feature-length competition of the documentary festival IDFA, focuses on the filmmaker’s parents, a secular progressive father and devout Muslim mother. It recounts the family’s life in Switzerland, where her father Hossein studied radiology in Geneva and where Khosrovani spent her early years. While he was very much at home in the French-speaking city, her mother Tayi remained a stranger in a strange land, yearning to return to her native country, and increasingly active in the revolutionary fervor that would soon usher in a new political reality in Iran.
The film’s subject matter and connection to Switzerland made it a perfect fit for Dschoint Ventschr. Established in 1994 by filmmakers...
- 11/24/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin film festival schedules special screenings in memory of Philip Seymour Hoffman and Maximilian Schell.
The 64th Berlin International Film Festival will pay tribute to Us actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died suddenly on Sunday, with a special screening of Capote.
The biopic, for which Hoffman won the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actor, will be screened at the CinemaxX 6 on Feb 11 at 9pm.
The Berlinale screened Bennett Miller’s Capote in Competition in 2006.
Hoffman also appeared in other films that screened at the Berlinale, such as Richard Kwietniowski’s Owning Mahowny (Panorama 2003); Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (Competition 2003); Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, winner of the Golden Bear in 2000.
In memory of actor and director Maximilian Schell, who died on Feb 1, producers Margit Chuchra (mm-production), Dieter Pochlatko (Epo) and Werner Schweizer (Dschoint Ventschr) are presenting his film Meine Schwester Maria (My Sister Maria) in collaboration with the...
The 64th Berlin International Film Festival will pay tribute to Us actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died suddenly on Sunday, with a special screening of Capote.
The biopic, for which Hoffman won the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Actor, will be screened at the CinemaxX 6 on Feb 11 at 9pm.
The Berlinale screened Bennett Miller’s Capote in Competition in 2006.
Hoffman also appeared in other films that screened at the Berlinale, such as Richard Kwietniowski’s Owning Mahowny (Panorama 2003); Spike Lee’s 25th Hour (Competition 2003); Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley; and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, winner of the Golden Bear in 2000.
In memory of actor and director Maximilian Schell, who died on Feb 1, producers Margit Chuchra (mm-production), Dieter Pochlatko (Epo) and Werner Schweizer (Dschoint Ventschr) are presenting his film Meine Schwester Maria (My Sister Maria) in collaboration with the...
- 2/6/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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