The menu of the Freiburg International Film Festival - to be savoured between 12 and 26 March - includes no less than 99 films (60 feature films, 38 shorts, 1 docuseries and 1 film in 4DX & Screenx) hailing from 52 countries and divided across 12 gourmet sections. Amongst these are 55 Swiss premieres and 3 world premieres. It’s an offering fit to satisfy all tastes: from the traditionalists, who can enjoy the dishes proffered by the International Competition, to the most audacious audiences, who’ll get to sample the parallel Genre Film section.

The opening film this year will be Umami – A Taste of Happiness [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by French director Slony Sow, starring Gérard Depardieu up front in the cast. The festival’s closing slot, meanwhile, is entrusted to French-Algerian director Mounia Meddour and her movie Houria [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which depicts the resurrection of a dancer who’s destroyed both in body and soul. The German director of Turkish descent Fatih Akin is guest of honour at this year’s Freiburg banquet. His movie Soul Kitchen [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], awarded the Special Jury Prize in Venice, is due to be presented in the Genre Film: Bon appétit! line-up, dedicated to culinary cinema. The section will ultimately consist of ten films hailing from all corners of the globe, including four European films screening in Swiss premieres: Édouard Baer’s bittersweet comedy Farewell Paris [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], starring Benoît Poelvoorde, François Damien and Pierre Arditi, among other names; Italian movie Diario di spezie [+leggi anche:
intervista: Massimo Donati
scheda film] by Massimo Donati, which is a cinematographic transposition of his novel of the same name; British director Ruth Paxton’s psychological horror film A Banquet; and Annika Appelin’s Swedish comedy Tuesday Club.

Fatih Akin is also curating the On the Map section, for which he has selected six of his favourite films. Rheingold [+leggi anche:
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Out of the twelve films hailing from twenty different countries which make up the International Feature Films Competition, five are European productions and co-productions screening in Swiss premieres. These include the second film by Iranian director Hassan Nazer Winners [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fabian Hernández
scheda film], which was presented in a world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight; American director Lotfy Nathan’s first feature film Harka [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]; Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan’s Nezouh [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], presented in Venice’s Orizzonti Extra section; and Chie Hayakawa’s first film Plan 75 [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Chie Hayakawa
scheda film], a sophisticated dystopia sure to titillate our tastebuds which is produced by Japan, France, the Philippines and Qatar, which was awarded a Golden Camera Special Mention at the last Cannes Film Festival, and which is currently Japan’s representative in the Oscars race.