30/10/2006

Aside from two Swiss documentaries, The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez by Heidi Specogna (PS Film), in the German competition, and Hippie Masala - Für immer in Indien (lit. "Hippie Masala - Forever in India") by Ulrich Grossenbacher and Damaris Lüthi (Fair & Ugly), the 49th Dok Leipzig International Festival’s international competition (October 30-November 5) will host Alpine Saga - A Film About Mountain Haymaking by Erich Langjahr (Langjahr Film, also shown at the Vienna Film Festival.

A regular at the event – where all his films have been presented since 1974 – Langjahr won the Special Jury Prize at the 1987 festival with Ex Voto and the 1996 and 1998 Special German Ministry of the Environment Awards for Sennen-Ballade and The Peasant’s War, respectively. He also won the 2002 Golden Dove with Shepherds' Journey Into the Third Millennium.

These last three films are part of a trilogy on the survival of farmers at the dawn of the 21st century, with the heart of the work entrenched in a Switzerland that the director has been observing for over 30 years as a three-man band (scriptwriter, director and producer).

Four animated Swiss films will be screened at Dok Leipzig: competition titles Play by Georges Schwizgebel, The Cleaner by Dustin Rees and Tarte aux pommes (lit. "Apple Tart") by Isabelle Favez, as well as The Fourth King by Ted Sieger and Michael Ekbladh, in the Children’s Animation section.

(Translated from French)