Born Svetlana Stalin

Born Svetlana Stalin

Svetlana Stalin, la fille unique du dictateur Joseph Staline, s’enfuit en Suisse en laissant derrière elle sa Russie natale et ses deux enfants.

Du sommet de l’empire soviétique à la solitude et la pauvreté, le film retrace le parcours et le destin d’une femme résolument libre.

C’est le portrait d’une femme qui essaie de prendre le contrôle de sa vie et d’échapper à l’ombre de son père. C’est l’histoire d’un personnage public déchiré entre son éducation, sa responsabilité de mère, ses ambitions de personne politique et ses propres ambiguïtés.

En 1967, en pleine guerre froide, Svetlana Stalin se rend à l’ambassade des États-Unis à New Delhi pour demander l’asile. De l’Inde, elle se rend chez des religieuses en Suisse romande qui la cachent chez elles.

Lors de ce séjour en Suisse, l’enjeu dépasse son propre destin : les discussions sur la signature d’un traité de désarmement nucléaire entre les États-Unis et l’URSS ont lieu à ce moment-là à Genève. On craint que le passage de la fille de Staline à l’Ouest ne compromette tout rapprochement entre les deux blocs.

Jusqu’à sa mort en 2011, Svetlana est pourchassée par la presse, les services secrets et de nombreux admirateurs.Celle que l’on surnomme la princesse du Kremlin ne se repose jamais et est constamment en fuite.

Le film raconte la biographie avec des images d’archives rares et une animation fine.

Riverboom

Riverboom

The road movie Riverboom shows the crazy odyssey of three young war reporters in the chaos of Afghanistan shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Serge, a workaholic journalist, Paolo, a photographer who is as cheerful as he is clueless, and Claude, a morbidly cautious Swiss typographer.

Claude, who plunges into this adventure against his will, buys a video camera in the Kabul bazaar to film this crazy journey that will change his life … before he loses the tapes and finds them again twenty years later. Cheering!

Promotional Partners
Reporter without borders | Le Temps | Payot | RTS

 

Here all performances always up to date

Life is Beautiful – Al Haya Helwa

Life is Beautiful – Al Haya Helwa

Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly insists on telling stories from his hometown Gaza sharing his own experiences and perspectives, not accepting the boundaries imposed by international politics and rigid bureaucracy. Stuck in the cold and dark arctic of Northern Norway, only able to connect to his family online, he manages to activate his own creativity and the support from his friends to keep up his motto LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.

Follow us #ICarus

Follow us #ICarus

Andreas und Daniel teilen nicht nur eine lebenslange Freundschaft, sondern auch ihre Ausbildung zum Automechaniker in der pittoresken Garage von Herisau. Doch während Andreas in der Welt der Motoren aufblüht, fühlt sich Daniel in seiner Ausbildung gefangen. Sein wahrer Traum ist es, als Influencer die Welt zu erobern. Um spektakulären Content für seine Follower zu kreieren, lässt er sich von Andreas bei waghalsigen Stunts filmen.

Doch in ihrem Streben nach dem nächsten aufregenden Moment verlieren die beiden Freunde den Bezug zur Realität. Auf der Jagd nach dem ultimativen “Thrill” stürzen sie sich in gefährliche Situationen und verfallen immer mehr dem Sog von Drogen. Die Grenze zwischen ihrem eigenen Leben und den inszenierten Abenteuern verschwimmt zusehends.

Inmitten des Rauschs und der sich überschlagenden Ereignisse kommt es zu einem tragischen Zwischenfall, der nicht nur ihre Freundschaft auf die Probe stellt, sondern auch ihr gesamtes Leben auf den Kopf stellt. Während die beiden nach Antworten suchen, erkennen sie, dass ihre Suche nach Extremen nicht nur ihren emotionalen, sondern auch ihren physischen Zustand auf eine harte Probe gestellt hat. Eine Geschichte über Freundschaft, Selbstfindung und die gefährlichen Abgründe, die sich auftun, wenn man die Realität aus den Augen verliert.

If only I could hibernate

If only I could hibernate

Winner of the Audience Award at the Film Festival Diritti Umani Lugano

A poor but prideful teenager, Ulzii, lives in the yurt area of Ulaanbaatar with his family. He is a physics genius and is determined to win a science competition to earn a scholarship. When his mother finds a job in the countryside, she leaves him and his younger siblings to face a harsh winter by themselves. Ulzii will have to take a risky job to look after them all and keep his home heated.

Promotional Partners
Mandach Naran

The Siren

The Siren

1980, Abadan. The capital of the Iranian oil industry is resisting an Iraqi siege. Fourteen-year-old Omid has braved the siege and stayed in the city with his grandfather, waiting for his elder brother to return from the front line. Along with Omid, a gallery of unusual characters have all remained in the city for their own reasons, and each resists in his or her own way. But the noose is tightening as Omid tries to save his loved ones, by embarking them on an abandoned boat he finds in Abadan’s port, that will become his ark.

Golden Seniors

Golden Seniors

Five senior citizens dare to step into the unknown. For 18 months, they will participate in a training based on mindfulness and altruism, which will be measured for a study. The aim is to evaluate the effects of meditation on ageing. The film tells their personal journey and mirrors it with scientific objectivity and the challenges of ageing well in our society. Living longer and longer – yes, but how?

Beyond the adventure of these seniors citizens, the film shows meditation as a way to connect with oneself and one’s surroundings. It illuminates the realities of this path with stumbling blocks, moments of doubt, gratitude, joy and sometimes relief.

Promotional Partners
CHUV Lausanne | CNP Neuchâtel | Ensemble Hospitalier de la Côte | HÔPITAUX UNIVERSITAIRES GENÈVE | Mindfulness Swiss | Pro Senectute Schweiz | UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE |

Plan 75

Plan 75

In a near future, the Japanese government programme “Plan 75” encourages older people to die voluntarily in order to combat the ageing of society. A senior citizen who can no longer live independently, a pragmatic “Plan 75” salesman and a young Filipino caregiver face a life-or-death decision.

Chie Hayakawa’s PLAN 75 is a wonderfully humanistic story that imaginatively uses Japan’s ageing crisis as a template for a dystopian narrative. But PLAN 75 is not all gloom. By following Michiko, Maria and Hiromu on their journey, director Hayakawa celebrates life and all its everyday, small pleasures. The centrepiece within this triptych of stories is Michiko, embodied by the formidable Chieko Baisho, an independent senior citizen who turns to “Plan 75” as her last option.

 PLAN 75 reçoit les trois prix les plus importants au Festival du Film International de Fribourg : Grand Prix, the Critics’ Choice Award et Comundo Youth Jury Award 

Jury Statement

Our big partner: GINMAKU FILM FESTIVAL ZURICH

Big Little Women

Big Little Women

How can one talk about feminist struggles in a tender way with an enlightened patriarch?

Under the influence of a very personal poetic potion, Nadia Fares transforms the homage to her beloved Egyptian father into a chronicle of the situation of women in Egypt and in Switzerland. She explores the effects of patriarchal tradition as a mirror effect between Orient and Occident.

 

Promotional Partners
RECIF | Tea Room (Fribourg) | Gender Campus | Mampreneures (association suisse des mamans entrepreneurs) | Association suisse pour le droit de la femme | EPFelles | OSAR (Organisation Suisse d’Aide aux réfugiers) | ParMi (Fribourg) (MNA) (Fribourg) | BIF Bureau information Femmes (Lausanne) | CSP (centre social protestant) – Genève | Service jeunesse et cohésion sociale (Yverdon les Bains) | Business and Professional Women Club Genève | Business and Professional Women Club Fribourg | Bureau Lausannois pour les Immigrés Lausanne | Service de la sécurité sociale, secteur intégration (Renens) | Bureau de l’intégration (Vevey) | elisa-asile | Association AMIS (Aigle) | podcast tea-room | Association pour la Promotion des Droits Humains | ACES Association culturelle Egypto-Suisse | Defence for Children (impact days 2021) | Frauenstadtrundgang Zürich | Gosteli Stiftung Archiv zur Geschichte der schweizerischen Frauenbewegung | Männer.ch Schweizerisches Institut für Männer | Swonet Swiss Women Network | womenmatters Blogg Frauen und Karriere | Haus der Religionen – Dialog der Kulturen (Bern) | Die Feministen | Frauenzentrale Zürich | Human Rights Film Festival Zurich | Fem So – Feministischer Verein Kanton Solothurn | Frauenzentrale Aargau | Elisa-asile |

The Last Queen

The Last Queen

Spectacular costume drama from Algeria

Algeria, 1516. The pirate Aroudj Barbarossa, together with King Salim Toumi, drives the Spanish occupiers out of Algiers. But the peace is short-lived: rumour has it that Barbarossa has murdered the king and declared himself ruler. When everyone from the royal court flees, only Queen Zaphira stands up to him. Between history and legend, her rebellion tells of the personal and political turmoil she endures for the sake of Algiers.

The cinema spectacle from Algeria is the first of its kind and reproduces the multilingual and diverse world of the Maghreb at historical sites. Told for the first time from a female perspective, THE LAST QUEEN – EL AKHIRA breaks with tradition and creates space for a woman who becomes a heroine in adversity.

It is a story Algerians have never seen before and they need it to dig deep into their history and culture. – Cineuropa

The debut feature co-directed by Algerian director-actress Adila Bendimerad and French-Algerian director Damien Ounouri – immerses us, swinging between refined court life and bloody battles, royal splendour and fights to the last blood.
to the last blood. – Cineuropa

Co-director/co-writer Damien Ounouri described the film as
a costume drama, and he wasn’t lying. But it felt like so much more. It felt like a good episode of Game of Thrones. – Universal Cinema

The Last Queen (113 minutes) explores under-represented chapters of history and offers ample space for expurgated perspectives and voices. It is an intimate and beautifully shot period piece about a complicated female heroic figure. – High on Films