At Venice this year, Swiss titles and co-productions boasting high-profile talent unspool throughout the festival. Switzerland is also a country of focus at the Venice Production Bridge industry strand with seven projects taking part in the Gap-Financing Market and two in the Immersive Market.
“For a relatively small and multilingual market, the combination of domestic relevance and international reach is significant,” says Nicola Ruffo, director of promotional organization Swiss Films.
‘Who Is Still Alive’
Courtesy of First Hand Films
‘The Indies’
Courtesy of Alina Film
“What excites me is really the range,” Ruffo stresses. “It is difficult to reduce contemporary Swiss cinema to one aesthetic or a specific topic — and I think that is a strength.”
Among them are works by both up-and-coming and well-established filmmakers such as Flurin Giger, who is developing “A Year Without Summer,” Valentin Merz, who presents “Chocolat Amer,” Stéphanie Argerich with “Kyushu Moon,” Kaveh Bakhtiari, who is developing “The Smuggler,” and Ursula Meier with “Quiet Land.”
“These are very different filmmakers and projects, many of them working internationally from an early stage, which is precisely what makes the current generation interesting,” Ruffo notes. “There is also an interesting bridge between this emerging generation and established filmmakers who continue to reinvent themselves.“
Ruffo points out that Switzerland is seeing “a continued stream of strong international co-productions” characterized by universal themes.
“At the same time, many of these films remain rooted in very specific places, communities and personal experiences. There is a recurring interest in questions of identity, belonging and how individuals navigate social and cultural boundaries.”
There is another development that Ruffo finds particularly interesting: “the move toward English-language filmmaking.” At the Venice Production Bridge, Swiss filmmakers Tim Fehlbaum (“September 5“), Ursula Meier and Michael Koch will come together at a panel to discuss precisely this question: What opportunities does work in English create for Swiss directors in terms of international casts, financing and audiences? And what does it mean for the identity of Swiss cinema?
‘Frank & Louis’
Credit: Rob Baker Ashton
“I do not think becoming more international necessarily means becoming less Swiss. Switzerland has always been multilingual and culturally interconnected. Perhaps our filmmakers are simply taking that reality one step further: telling stories from a particular perspective without allowing language or national borders to define where those stories can travel.
