14/12/2023 - Carmen Jaquier and Jan Gassmann's Paradises of Diane is set to open this festival rich in captivating stories and hybrid narrative forms

For his second edition as artistic director, Niccolò Castelli is asserting the fundamental role played by the festival in the Swiss film panorama. As well as acting as a showcase for Swiss cinema, the Solothurn Film Festival - whose 59th edition will unspool 17 – 24 January 2024 - is also setting itself the mission of screening a number of newly finished films in world premieres, all within a familiar yet demanding context. On this note, Castelli notes that: "Film consumption has changed considerably, audiences are often overwhelmed with digital content. That’s why the Solothurn Film Festival’s mission is to present works which can help inform the audience". In this sense, the morning meetings offered up by Fare Cinema are becoming a privileged space for meetings between professionals and the public.

New additions for this year include the SO PRO programme, which looks to strengthen the role played by festivals as centres of excellence for Swiss cinema. Over the course of three days, Swiss film professionals will get to develop contacts and exchange views during a number of workshops, masterclasses, discussions and pitching sessions. As emphasised in the press release, "the sector is facing significant artistic and economic challenges, not least new streaming players, the opportunities and the dangers presented by artificial intelligence, and the shortage of qualified technicians". In this sense, SO PRO will provide an ideal opportunity to discuss the challenges which films of tomorrow must face. The second novelty of this year’s edition is the Visioni section, which now rewards both first and second films (a total of eight movies will compete for a prize worth 20,000 francs). These works are bold in terms of their forms and narratives, which tackle difficult issues. Visioni is replacing Opera Prima which only set its sights on first works.

In terms of the line-up itself, the selected films (238 out of the 440 submitted) broach incredibly topical themes, providing the public with an opportunity to reflect on the world around them. Migration and conflicts (the Israel-Palestine war in particular) are at the heart of these reflections. The opening film, Berlinale Panorama-selected Paradises of Diane [+see also:
film review
interview: Carmen Jaquier & Jan Gassmann
film profile] by Carmen Jaquier and Jan Gassmann, is just one of these courageous films, probing open wounds; a film which pays no heed to taboos or narrative conventions.

Seven films are in the running for the Prix de Soleure, worth 60,000 francs (the most lucrative Swiss film prize on offer): five documentaries and two works of fiction. The former include 2G [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Karim Sayad, painting the portrait of four smugglers in the Niger, The Hearing [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Lisa Gerig, which follows four unsuccessful asylum seekers who tell their story directly to camera, Prisoners of Fate [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Mehdi Sahebi, which lends a voice to a handful of Afghan and Iranian refugees in Switzerland, God is a Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrés Peyrot
film profile] by Andres Peyrot, who travelled to Panama to film the Kuna people, and Operation Silence – Die Affäre Flükiger by Werner Schweizer, which examines the case of a recruit called Flükiger who was found dead in 1977. The fiction films, meanwhile, consist of Paradises of Diane, and The Fortunate Ones [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Jeanne Waltz, which explores a love story clouded by a painful family and personal context.

Seven films have also been selected for the Audience Award, all of which are screening in Swiss or world premieres. The themes explored in the documentaries in this line-up are powerful, captivating and varied, ranging from mass tourism in the Alps to a the hijacking of a Swissair plane in 1970. The fiction films in the offing, for their part, are Jakobs Ross by Katalin Gödrös, the comedy Les histoires d’amour de Liv S. by Anna Luif, and Pierre Monnard’s latest feature film Bisons [+see also:
film review
film profile].

(Translated from French)