First of French-speaking film Festival
Fonction: Cinéma, the Geneva association for independent cinema opens the first edition of the French-speaking Film Festival. From June, 3rd to June, 5th, this new event proposes a selection of 20 documentaries, 9 fictions and 37 short-length films produced in the French-speaking part of Switzerland so the public can rediscover the French-speaking cinema .
The festival will screen many documentaries, a much-liked genre in the Swiss cinema, which tackle many different themes and horizons. Several new films have been shot in Latin America (Amasoja by Giorgio D’Imperio, (Cuba Libre by Yariv Friedman) and above all in Africa ((En attendant la pluie by Agnès Maritza Boulmer, L’assassinat de Félix Moumié by Frank Garbely), whereas Profil bas by Nathalie Flückiger follows the integration efforts of an Ethiopian in Switzerland, or Vania Paratte shoots the life of an altermondialist community town on the fringe of the G8 in Evian in Un village intergalactique . Seven documentaries are therefore screened in world premiere, but two films that attracted considerable attention in Nyon at the Festival Visions du Réel are to be mentioned: Les arbres de Josh by Peter Entell and Le souffle du désert by François Kohler.
As for fiction films, they are more and more present in French-speaking cinemas. Five feature films which have been released since 2004 are scheduled: Je suis ton père by Michel Rodde, Garçon stupide by Lionel Baier, Au large de Bad Ragaz by Christophe Marzal, Absolut by Romed Wyder and Un homme sans histoire by Pierre Maillard. Also to be mentioned are two television movies which were very well followed on French channels: Bien dégagé derrière les oreilles by Anne Deluz and Bonhomme de chemin by Frédéric Mermoud. Eventually, the long-awaited Tout un hiver sans feu by Greg Zglinski will be screened in open-air. The film was awarded the Swiss Film Prize 2005 for the Best Fiction Film, and also received the Prize for the Best First Work by the Youth Jury of the Cinemavvenire Center Association and the Prize for the Best Film by the World Catholic Association for Communication (Signis) during the 61st Venice Film Festival.
(Translated from French)
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