Now at its 61st edition (running 21 - 23 January), the Solothurn Film Festival promises to be just as eclectic as ever, in terms of formats, genres and the length of its films. The gathering has assembled a selection of 164 feature-length and short films, and a significant proportion of documentaries too (68%). The movies selected in the three competitive sections (Prix de Soleure, Audience Award and Visioni) offer a nigh-on perfect balance between French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland, but Italian-speaking Switzerland is still in the minority with just two films on the agenda. The guest of honour and focus of the festival’s retrospective is the Genevan filmmaker born in Lebanon Edna Politi.

Artistic director Niccolò Castelli has emphasised that, in terms of content, "the stories open themselves up to new and notably scientific fields", adding that the stance adopted by directors is "less moralising and perhaps also less marked by a western approach". Learning about reality in a complex and nuanced way is exactly what interests Bernard Weber and Martin Schilt who, in The Narrative (also nominated for the Prix de Soleure), tell the complicated story of Kweku Adoboli, who was believed to be responsible for UBS London’s colossal deficit in 2011.

Seven films are in the running for the Audience Award alongside The Narrative. Social Landscapes by Jonas Meier, which is wholly composed of online comments and criticisms, questions the line between perception and reality, and Don’t Let the Sun [+lee también:
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entrevista: Jacqueline Zünd
ficha de la película] by Jacqueline Zünd (awarded the Leopard for Best Performance in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present line-up) and You Believe in Angels, Mr. Drowak? by Nicolas Steiner both focus on empathy in an increasingly sterile world. The emancipation of women is tackled in Marie-Elsa Sgualdo’s Silent Rebellion [+lee también:
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entrevista: Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
ficha de la película], which was presented in Venice’s Venice Spotlight section, while another sensitive theme - namely Switzerland’s colonial history and the work on memory that needs to be carried out - is explored in Elephants & Squirrels [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by director and photographer Gregor Brändli. Last but not least, Who Is Still Alive [+lee también:
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entrevista: Nicolas Wadimoff
ficha de la película] by Nicolas Wadimoff (presented in Venice’s Giornate degli Autori line-up) and Solidarity by David Bernet take viewers into a crisis zone whilst lending a voice to those who’ve been silenced on account of war.

The Audience Award competition is offering up eight films, comprising two works of fiction and six documentaries. These include Summer Camp [+lee también:
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entrevista: Mateo Ybarra
ficha de la película] by Mateo Ybarra (presented in the IFFR’s Bright Future section) and Becaària by Erik Bernasconi, which both home in on the delicate transition to adulthood. Be Boris by Benoît Goncerut follows the day-to-day life of the director’s best friend, an unemployed film lover, and adolescence is also represented in Kalari Kid – She Hits Back by Maria Kaur Bedi and Satindar Singh Bedi. The competition likewise features two portraits of female fighters: Freedom – le destin de Shewit by Anne-Frédérique Widmann and Imagine Peace by Basel-born Fabian Chiquet. Laundry [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Zamo Mkhwanazi (presented in Toronto’s Discovery section) will round off the selection, telling the tale of a family legacy in the midst of apartheid in Johannesburg, alongside Hirschfeld-Unbekannter Bekannter by Stina Werenfels and Samir, which also revolves around resistance.

Last but not least, six films have been selected for the young Visioni section, including A Free Daughter of Free Kyrgyzstan by Leigh Iacobucci, which focuses on the young activist and popstar Zere Asylbek, and La vallée by Gwennaël Bolomey and Nessuno vi farà del male by Dino Hodic, which explore the origins of their directors and their traumas. Gender issues are similarly present in Les chasseresses by Amélie Bargetzi and Christelle Jornod, which follows four young people who decide to get closer to the hunting world, and there’s also Flying Scents – Of Plants and People [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Antshi von Moos (presented in Locarno’s Critics’ Week) and Solo Show by Julius Weigel, which is the only fiction film in the group and which homes in on an art student faced with the reality of daily life.