The Friend is Swiss Oscar hopeful
Winner at the 2008 Swiss Film Awards in the categories of Best Feature and Best Emerging Actor, Micha Lewinsky’s The Friend [+see also:
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The choice was made by the Federal Office for Culture on the basis of the film’s success among audiences (30,000 admissions in Switzerland) and critics, as well as its selection at numerous international festivals. No Swiss documentary has been put forward to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The Friend recounts the curious love story between Emil (Philippe Graber) and Larissa (Emilie Welti), who dies shortly after their encounter. Emil works his way into the dead woman’s family under the guise of a “widower” and soon falls in love with Larissa’s sister (Johanna Bantzer).
This is the debut feature by the young Swiss-German director, who was born in Kassel in 1972. The film was produced by Langfilm [www.langfilm.ch], whose production Alpine Fire (by Fredi M. Murer) was previously nominated for Hollywood honours.
Lewinsky – the acclaimed screenwriter of Christoph Schaub’s Sternenberg (2004) – is currently shooting his second feature, Die Standesbeamtin, for television.
(Translated from French)
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