10/03/2006

Four Swiss documentaries released in Paris between January and March have received eulogies from the French press. Feline Masquerade ( Le bal des chattes sauvages) by Veronika Minder (Cobra Films/distributed by Epicentre Films), about a lesbian love story in Switzerland, won over Benjamin Mallet of Première and Le Monde critic Jacques Mandelbaum ("a portrait, at once grave and sensitive").

Coca: The Dove From Chechnya (Doc Productions/distributed by K Films) also received praise from Thomas Sotinel, another critic at Le Monde: "Eric Bergkraut’s documentary is a solid piece of journalism, which shows both the immense courage of its heroine (in both senses of the word) and that of the obstacles in her way". For Jérémie Couston of Télérama, "this militant documentary with a rare intensity denounces the unbearable inertia of European democracies".

A Swiss/French co-production directed by Monika Borgmann, Lokman Slim and Hermann Theissen, Massaker (Dschoint Ventschr /distributed by Zootrope Films) is at the centre of a debate. The critics at Cahiers du cinéma, Libération and Le Monde question the ethical choices made by the filmmakers, who allowed the killers in the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Chatila in Beirut to have their say. Out since March 1, Maria Bethânia: Music and Perfume (Idéale Audience/distributed by Les Films du Paradoxe) was also praised. Taken by this portrait of the famous Brazilian singer by Georges Gachot, Richard Robert of Inrockuptibles wrote: "The fatal beauty of all the actors in this story makes Music and Perfume among the best music documentaries of recent years".

One can only hope that L’accord – Un plan de paix né à Genève (lit. “The Agreement: A Peace Plan Born in Geneva”) (Akka Films/distributed by Solaris), by Nicolas Wadimoff and Béatrice Guelpa, which will be released in Paris on March 15, receives the same welcome.

(Translated from French)