Welcome to Switzerland – Swiss showcase at 57th Zlín Film Festival 2017
This year, Swiss Cinema will be presented at 57th International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Zlín. A total of 30 films for children and youth will be featured in the section called "Welcome to Switzerland", named after the Swiss film of the same title. There will be feature films and short animations as well as a number of documents that have been very successful in recent years.
The showcase will focus on Swiss films for children and young audience. Many of them come from classics of Swiss literature for children and many of them have received significant international awards. An indispensable part of the programme is a documentary film that has a strong position in Swiss cinema. The genre of animated film will be represented by the collection of the Nadasdy Films, the Swiss studio of animated film.
Swiss focus could not be complete without Johanna Spyri´s Heidi, one of the best-selling books ever written. The latest adaptation from last year is called Heidi and it will be introduced by its director Alain Gsponer, member of this year´s international jury for a feature film for children and youth at the Zlín Film Festival. Another adaptation is aimed more at boys. We talk about the film Rascals on the Road based on the book by a Swiss writer Klaus Schädelin. Viewers should not miss the award-winning family drama Vitus by Fredi M. Murer about a miraculous boy, with famous Bruno Ganz in the role of a grandfather. Another film worth mentioning is Ursula Meier´s critically-acclaimed Sister featuring Kacey Motet Klein who was a Young Star at the last Zlín Film Festival. The ECFA award winner My Life as a Zucchini, animated feature by Claude Barras will be screened in Zlín as well. Two films will be screened with the participation of their director Tobias Ineichen - the Alpine mysterious adventure Clara and the Secret of the Bears, and a television drama about 17-year-old autistic boys Jimmie starring Swiss rising star Joel Basman in the lead role.
The portrait of the amazing Swiss nature and often difficult and unusual life of its inhabitants will be seen in the documentary The Children from the Napf, depicting the daily joys and dreams of children from farm families living in the remote mountain farms. Director Alice Schmid, this year's juror of the European First Films section, will be present to talk with the audience about her famous film. Highly recommended is also Swing it Kids!, a documentary about a tour life of the successful kid´s swing band performing in Switzerland, Japan and U.S.A.
List of Swiss films at 57th Zlín Film Festival 2017:
The Black Brothers (2013, Xavier Koller)
Bold Heroes (2010, Michael Schaerer)
Clara and the Secret of the Bears (2012, Tobias Ineichen)
Heidi (2015, Alain Gsponer)
The Children from the Napf (2011, Alice Schmid)
Jan – Challenge at the Net (2013, Benjamin Kempf Siemens, Rafael Benito)
Jimmie (2008, Tobias Ineichen)
My Life as a Zucchini (2016, Claude Barras)
Neuland (2013, Anna Thommen)
Normal (2010, Bernard Weber)
Rascals on the Road (2006, Michael Steiner)
Silver Forest (2011, Christine Repond)
Sister (2012, Ursula Meier)
Swing It Kids! (2016, Fabian Kimoto)
Vitus (2006, Fredi M. Murer)
Nadasdy Films collection (Air-Mail, Aubade, Gypaetus Helveticus, Hasta Santiago, Little Dragon, Lucens, Of Shadows and Wings, Shaman Bazar, Ugly Pretty Hearts, Vigia)
