05/06/2006

Two months before the 59th Locarno Film Festival (August 2-12), the first pieces of the puzzle are beginning to come together for the event headed by new Artistic Director Frédéric Maire.

At first glance, Irene Bignardi’s era seems to have waned, if nothing else than from a visual point of view: the new posters provide the first clue. The Human Rights section was also eliminated and the video works are no longer in a competition relegated to some corner, but have been included in Filmmakers of the Present, that is, in official competition. The program has furthermore been reduced so as to make the most of the films.

There will be a retrospective on Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki that will include his latest film, presented at Cannes, Lights in the Dusk [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Another retrospective will focus on Russia’s Alexandre Sokurov, who will receive a Career Leopard. The director of Father and Son, who won the Bronze Leopard in 1987 (The Lonely Human Voice), will also receive an award for his documentary Spiritual Voices. Sokurov will also present his new film in Locarno, an homage to Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich entitled Elegy of Life.

Two great names of Argentinean cinema will be among the jury members: Lisandro Alonso, in the Best First Film section, and Hernán Musaluppi, in the Filmmakers of the Present section. There will also be two representatives from Switzerland as jury members: artist Emmanuelle Antille and photographer/director Edo Bertoglio.

At Cannes, where debut director Frédéric Maire was in the Caméra d’Or jury, the title of a Swiss film that will be at Locarno was revealed: the new documentary by Marcel Schüpbach, La liste de Carla (lit. “Carla’s List”) (CAB Productions, Losanna), a portrait of Carla del Ponte, prosecutor of the Hague International Criminal Court.