12/05/2017 - Ivan Madeo, one of the producers behind the choral film Wonderland, strongly believes in the emergence of a young and very promising new wave of Swiss directors

Selected as the Swiss representative for the Producers on the Move initiative, Ivan Madeo was born in Switzerland, where he studied Psychology and Film Journalism. He started his career working for leading advertising agencies in Switzerland and Italy before turning to film production. Together with Urs Freys and Stefan Eichenberger, he founded the company Contrast Film, which has branches in Zurich and Bern and produces feature films as well as creative documentaries. Contrast Films has developed and produced award-winning feature films like Stefan Haupt’s The Circle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Haupt
film profile] as well as short films like Mauro Mueller’s A World for Raúl. The young Swiss producer is a a member of the European Film Academy, the Swiss Film Academy, the Swiss Film Producers’ Association and the Swiss Film Commission for Documentaries.

Cineuropa: How did you get into film production? What are the most enjoyable and difficult aspects of your work?
Ivan Madeo: Well, I’ve always loved telling stories, but since I’m completely untalented when it comes to acting and directing, I focused on writing and producing the stories I wanted to tell. The most enjoyable moments of my work are when a film I have been working on for years is finally being screened in a cinema full of people. The most difficult moments of my work are when a film I have been working on for years can’t be made and screened in a cinema full of people.

What would make you say, “Yes, this is a film I would like to produce”? What catches your eye in a project?
Even if we’re not directing, my two partners and I are present in every film we produce. So, every story at Contrast Film has something to do with the three of us, and focuses on a topic we care about. We always say that the projects we initiate or select as producers talk about issues that we would still be engaged with personally even if we weren’t making films.

Parallel to projects with well-known directors such as Stefan Haupt, you also worked on Wonderland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carmen Jaquier and Lionel R…
film profile], a collaborative film by very young directors. What do you think about this young and successful Swiss new wave, represented, among others, by Simon Jaquemet and some of Wonderland’s directors (Tobias Nölle, Lionel Rupp, Lisa Blatter…)?
When we first started this crazy project of producing a film with 10 young Swiss directors, we didn’t know what a great bunch of talent we were working with. Of course, we saw every day that they were artistically ambitious, curious and hungry. In the meantime, many of them, like Jan Gassmann, Tobias Nölle, Lisa Blatter and Lionel Rupp, have made extraordinary new films and have proven the existence of a new wave in Swiss cinema. In this “generation Heimatland” (the Swiss title for Wonderland) are other young directors like Nicolas Steiner, Anna Thommen, Ursula Meier, Michael Koch, Maurizius Staerkle-Drux, Nikola and Corinna Ilic and Esen Isik. They and many others represent enormous hope for the future of Swiss cinema.

What projects do you have in development and which one will you take with you to Cannes? What do you expect from the Producers on the Move experience?
We have a slate of new feature films in development, both with established directors like Léa Pool, Oliver Rihs and Matthias von Gunten and with younger directors like Michael Krummenacher, Anna Thommen and Christine Repond. In Cannes, I will present a scintillatingly sensual and erotic psychological drama, the feature film Jeux de Mains (WT) by Mauro Mueller, with whom we’ve worked before, on the Student Oscar-winning short A World for Raúl.

How important are co-productions for the Swiss film industry?
They are very important. Due to a right-wing populist referendum “against mass immigration”, Switzerland was kicked out of “Creative Europe” and the MEDIA programme in 2014. That was a shock for the Swiss film industry. Therefore, international co-productions and co-operations are essential, as much for cultural exchange as for financial survival.