Locarno presents a showcase to Swiss own, small film industry

Locarno, Switzerland, Aug 12 (UNI) As the ranking film festival in Switzerland, Locarno presents a showcase to the country's own, small film industry.

Swiss cinema suffers from a lot of obstacles. It has to find a space in competition with its surrounding countries like Germany, France and Italy, which have a much better and prolific film output.

Then, Switzerland has three different languages and cultures, not all of which find expression through that medium.

Swiss films are mainly produced in the Swiss-German region, while the cantons speaking French and Italian as yet do not produce features. There has also been the problem of finding resources.

In that context, Locarno has recently come forward to better support the local products. The Film Festival, in its 60th edition here, celebrated its second annual Swiss Cinema Day on August 7 on an upbeat note. It was launched jointly by Mr Micha Schiwow, director of Swiss Films (the national film-promotion agency) and Mr.J-F. Jauslin, head of the Swiss Govt's Federal Office of Culture.

The day's activities included acting and animation workshops, the release of a definitive new book, "History of the Swiss Cinema, 1966-2000", and the announcement of the 2007 awards to the locally-produced films. Fulvio Bernasconi, director of "Outside the Ropes", the only Swiss film this year in the Locarno's main competition, had his film's third and final screening on this day, and was presented with the Ticino Prize. The latter carries a prize-money of 40,000 Swiss Francs (about Indian Rs 13 lakhs) which would help finance his next film. It is to be a comedy about a flood so severe that it transforms the Swiss Alps into islands ! Other screenings on the day included Thomas Imbach's romance, "I Was a Swiss Banker" and the world premiere of Martin Witz's "Dutti der Riese" about the life of the Swiss grocery-store tycoon and humanist, Gottlieb Duttweiler. The evening programme at the Piazza Grande had again the world premiere of a local film, "1 Journee" by Jacob Berger. The main benefit of the Swiss Cinema Day, as aptly put by Bernasconi is "that it might help the little-known Swiss film-industry enjoy a brief period in the spotlight at an important festival".

Micha Schiwow noted appreciatively that "the year 2006 will go down as a breakthrough in the annals of Swiss film". It had gained an increased domestic market-share, almost 10%. The presence of Swiss cinema abroad was stronger. A film like Fredi Murer's "Vitus" obtained both commercial and critical acclaim overseas, while Andrea Staka's debut-film, "Das Fraulein" had won the top Golden Leopard award at Locarno last year.

Federal funding has had a crucial role to play in the development of the Swiss cinema. Even though it is the responsibility mainly of the cantons (provinces) to finance culture in their respective areas, the federal funding gives boost to those activities. Thus Locarno Film Festival gets 45% of its total budget from public funding, of which the Federal Office of Culture's own share is about 14%. Nicolas Bideau, Head of Film in that Office, stated: "It is not the task of the federal government to create productions, but rather to keep a watchful eye on the change of mentality and to stir in support of the most talented practitioners." In doing so, Government does not interfere in the functioning of the Film Festival or the other agencies that it funds. This was admitted by Frederic Maire, director of Locarno Festival, while talking to UNI here. There is also no censorship by the State on film-making, and it is for a film-director to ensure that his work remains in conformity with the federal laws.

It remains to be seen whether the achievements of Swiss Cinema are maintained in the coming years. What however is likely is that the Indian festival-audiences may get to see a few of the better products of the Swiss Cinema in the near future.

UNI