19/09/2012 - Unspooling between September 20-30, the Swiss film festival screens 17 Swedish features, adding Swedish director Gabriela Pichler's Eat Sleep Die in the international competition

Switzerland's Zürich Film Festival , which launches its eighth programme between September 20-30, will focus on Sweden as a country where "the emerging cinematic oeuvre stands above all others in widening cinematographic horizons," screening 17 recent features in a New World View section.

In addition, Swedish director Gabriela Pichler's feature debut, Eat Sleep Die [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: China Ahlander
interview: Gabriela Pichler
interview: Nermina Lukac
film profile] (photo), which had its world premiere in the Critics' Week at the recent Venice International Film Festival, has been selected as one of the 13 entries in Zürich's international competition, where the winning film receives the Golden Eye.

The portrait of a 20-year-old jobless girl in a small village (Nermina Lukac), who wants her life to be more than just 'eat sleep die', won the RaroVideo Audience Award in Venice, before it went on to Toronto's Discovery Section. The China Åhlander production for Anagram Film will be released domestically on October 5 by Triart Film AB.

Pichler will attend the festival with a contingency of Swedish filmmakers, representing their films, such as directors Axel Petersén (Avalon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Kathrine Windfeld (Agent Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile]), Alexandra-Therese Keining (Kiss Me) with her lead actress, Ruth Vega Fernandez.

Simon Kaijser da Silva will meet the audiences for his Stockholm East, and Linda Molin, who plays the lead in Lisa Aschan's She Monkeys [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lisa Aschan
film profile], will introduce her first feature, which won three Guldbagger, Sweden's national film prize. Also, Ruben Östlund's Play [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Ostlund
film profile] will be on show in Zürich, which last year exceeded 50,000 admissions.