MADISON - Wisconsin Film Festival is featuring a four-film sidebar of New Swiss Cinema that includes "Sister," a 2012 Swiss drama that won the Silver Berlin Bear, Special Award at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival.
The series is sponsored by the Consulate General of Switzerland, Chicago Office. The festival runs Thursday, April 11 to Thursday, April 18 in Madison.
"Sister" is directed by Ursula Meier, and was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, making the January shortlist. The story presents 12-year-old Simon who supports his older sister by pilfering Swiss Alps tourists' fancy sporting gear. Gillian Anderson, from "The X-Files," appears as an upperclass mother whose postcard-ready family Simon yearns to join. It was filmed in French as "L'Enfant d'en haut," with English subtitles.
"Winter Nomads" follows Pascale, a grizzled veteran, and Carole, his younger protégé, a pair of shepherds who steer 800 sheep, a few donkeys and dogs, and one puppy 600 kilometers across a snow-covered Switzerland on a grazing odyssey called the transhumance during the coldest four months of the year. This documentary about a vanishing way of life in rural Europe won a 2012 European Film Academy award for Best Documentary and the Great Prize for the best Swiss feature film for 2012 at the Visions du Reel. It was filmed in French as "Hiver Nomade," with English subtitles.
"Special Flight," winner of the Swiss Film Prize for Best Documentary, traces illegal immigration in Switzerland, where undocumented immigrants can be abruptly arrested and held without trial for extended periods in a detention center. Award-winning documentarian Fernand Melgar goes inside one compound to examine the lives of inmates who can spend years awaiting asylum or deportation and often develop personal relationships with the wardens. It was filmed in French as "Vol special," with English subtitles.
"The End of Time" is already sold out, but rush tickets will be available at the door. Filmmaker Peter Mettler's work, considered one of the most visually stunning films at the festival, it includes footage from a skydive in 1960, lava flows in Hawaii, and a Hindu funeral rite.
To order tickets or to see the full 2012 film guide, go to www.wifilmfest.org
- Tere Dunlap
The series is sponsored by the Consulate General of Switzerland, Chicago Office. The festival runs Thursday, April 11 to Thursday, April 18 in Madison.
"Sister" is directed by Ursula Meier, and was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar at the 85th Academy Awards, making the January shortlist. The story presents 12-year-old Simon who supports his older sister by pilfering Swiss Alps tourists' fancy sporting gear. Gillian Anderson, from "The X-Files," appears as an upperclass mother whose postcard-ready family Simon yearns to join. It was filmed in French as "L'Enfant d'en haut," with English subtitles.
"Winter Nomads" follows Pascale, a grizzled veteran, and Carole, his younger protégé, a pair of shepherds who steer 800 sheep, a few donkeys and dogs, and one puppy 600 kilometers across a snow-covered Switzerland on a grazing odyssey called the transhumance during the coldest four months of the year. This documentary about a vanishing way of life in rural Europe won a 2012 European Film Academy award for Best Documentary and the Great Prize for the best Swiss feature film for 2012 at the Visions du Reel. It was filmed in French as "Hiver Nomade," with English subtitles.
"Special Flight," winner of the Swiss Film Prize for Best Documentary, traces illegal immigration in Switzerland, where undocumented immigrants can be abruptly arrested and held without trial for extended periods in a detention center. Award-winning documentarian Fernand Melgar goes inside one compound to examine the lives of inmates who can spend years awaiting asylum or deportation and often develop personal relationships with the wardens. It was filmed in French as "Vol special," with English subtitles.
"The End of Time" is already sold out, but rush tickets will be available at the door. Filmmaker Peter Mettler's work, considered one of the most visually stunning films at the festival, it includes footage from a skydive in 1960, lava flows in Hawaii, and a Hindu funeral rite.
To order tickets or to see the full 2012 film guide, go to www.wifilmfest.org
- Tere Dunlap