02/08/2006

One hundred and seventy feature films will screened during the 59th edition of the Locarno International Film Festival (August 2-12). A rich slate, even if reduced by 25% with respect to 2005. "It was necessary to slim down, but it will give greater visibility to the selected films", explained the festival’s new artistic director, Frédéric Maire, presenting the program of the festival, which has a budget of 9.8m Swiss francs.

The festival will open with the Hollywood film Miami Vice by Michael Mann, yet there are numerous European films throughout approximately a dozen sections. "The selection is open, rich, free and explores all of cinema’s extremes", confirmed Maire proudly.

The international competition for the Golden Leopard features 21 films from 15 nations, most of which are world premieres. There are many established filmmakers, as well as some of the European’s cinemas most interesting young auteurs, including Catalan filmmaker Marc Recha, Germany’s Iain Dilthey, Italy’s Roberta Torre, Belgium’s Joachim Lafosse, France’s Laurent Achard and Viviane Candas, Romania’s Radu Muntean and the UK’s Chris Cottam, who co-directed The Lives of the Saints with renowned photographer Rankin.

Naturally, room has been made for Swiss cinema, with the feature film by Andrea Staka, Das Fräulein, which looks at the complex situation of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia living in Zurich. "All of the films offer a portrait, sometimes dramatic, sometimes comical, of contemporary society", adds Maire.

The festival’s 2006 edition also features a new competition section, entitled Filmmakers of the Present, with 23 films "that often unfold along the line between science fiction and reality".

The 2005 edition attracted approximately 190,000 spectators, and certainly even this year the Piazza Grande will remain the festival’s privileged venue for international and world premieres of quality "popular" films from throughout the world. Three of these films are Swiss produced: Mon frère se marie by Jean-Stéphane Bron of the Vaud Canton, the German-language comedy Die Herbstzeitlosen by Bettina Oberli and the documentary La lista di Carla (lit. "Carla’s List") by Marcel Schüpbach, on the work of Carla del Ponte, prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

Lastly, some of the festival’s more interesting events will be a day dedicated to Swiss cinema, the Lifetime Achievement Leopard for Russian filmmaker Alexandre Sokourov and a retrospective dedicated to Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki.

International Competition

Agua - Veronica Chen - AR/FR
Black Eyed Dog - Pierre Gang - CA
Body Rice - Hugo Vieira da Silva - PT
Ça rend heureux - Joachim Lafosse – BE
Chahar Shanbeh Souri (Fireworks Wenesday) - Asghar Farhadi - IR
Le Dernier des fous - Laurent Achard –FR/BE
Dies d'Agost - Marc Recha –ES
El Benny - Jorge Luis Sanchez -CU/ES/UK.
Das Fraülein - Andrea Staka - CH
Fu Sheng (Bliss) -Sheng Zhimin - CN
Gefangene - Iain Dilthey – DE/ AT
Half Nelson -Ryan Fleck - USA
Hartia va fi albastra (The Paper Will Be Blue) - Radu Muntean - RO
Jimmy Della Collina - Enrico Pau - IT
Der Mann Von Der Botschaft - Dito Tsintsadze - DE
Mare Nero - Roberta Torre – IT/FR
Mnogotochie (Ellipsis) - Andrei A. Eshpai – RU
Nae-Chungchun-Aegae-Goham (Don't Look Back) - Kim Youngnam - KR/JP
Stephanie Daley - Hilary Brougher – USA
The Lives of The Saints - Chris Cottam and Rankin - UK.
Suzanne et les vieillards - Viviane Candas – FR

Piazza Grande

Die Herbstzeitlosen - Bettina Oberli – CH
Dead in Three Days - Andreas Prochaska – AT
Lights in the Dusk - Aki Kaurismaki -- FI/DE/FR
The Lives Of Others - Florian Henckel-Donnersmarck - DE
La Liste de Carla - Marcel Schupbach - CH
Little Miss Sunshine - Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris – USA
L’Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio - Augostino Ferrente – IT
Miami Vice - Michael Mann - USA
Mon frère se marie - Jean-Stephane Bron – CH/FR
Neil Young : Heart of Gold - Jonathan Demme -USA
Nomad - Sergej Bodrov - KZ
Quale Amore - Maurizio Sciarra – IT/CH
La Raison du plus faible - Lucas Belvaux –FR/BE
Severance - Christopher Smith - UK
Un franco, 14 peseras - Carlos Iglesias -ES
Indigènes - Rachid Bouchareb –FR

Competition "Cinéastes du Présent"

Acidente - Cao Guimaraes & Pablo Lobato – BR
L'Année suivante - Elisabeth Czajka – FR
Chand Kilo Khorma Baraye Marassem-E Tadfin (A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral) - Saman Salour - IR
Le Dernier Homme - Ghassan Salhab - FR/LB
Yeoindeul/Talk To Her : Digital Short Films By Three Filmmakers - Eric Khoo, Darejan Omirbaev, Pen-ek Ratanaruang - KR
L'Etrangère - Florence Colombani - FR
Fragments sur la grâce - Vincent Dieutre –FR/BE
Germanium No Yoru (The Whispering of the Gods) - Tatsushi Omori -JP
Kilnieks (The Hostage) - Laila Pakalnina - LV/EE/SI
Kythera - Peter Meszaros – HU
Love Strory - Kelvin Tong - SG/HK
Les mains d'Andrea - Sebastien Betbeder - FR
Rabia - Oscar Cardenas - CL
Schopenhauer - Giovanni Davide Maderna - IT
La Silla - Julio D. Wallovits - ES
So Lange du Hierbist - Stefan Westerwelle - DE
Sotto la stessa luna - Carlo Luglio - IT
Street Thief - Malik Bader -USA
Tarachime - Naomi Kawase - JP/FR
Verfolgt - Angelina Maccarone - DE
La vraie vie est ailleurs - Frederic Choffat - CH
Who is Haoran ? - Yishu Yang - CI
Wild Tigers I Have Known - Cam Archer - USA

Camillo de Marco