Ticino cinema and filmmakers at the Swiss Film Days in Solothurn

The 57th Solothurn Film Days, which will take place from January 19th to 26th, will find a theatre audience once again - last year the festival was held online due to the pandemic - and will offer in its various categories various films shot in our Canton and/or directed by Ticinese directors. A total of five films were shot in Ticino, three of which were supported by the Ticino Film Commission,  and many films by Ticino directors which, although not filmed in Ticino, bring the sensitivity of the culture linked to our region as well as the Swiss Italian-speaking to an international audience.

The last edition (2021) of the Solothurn Film Days saw Ticino as the focus of their programming. Atlas by Niccolò Castelli was the first Ticino film to ever open the event, the guest of honor at the edition was the Lugano-born author and producer Villi Hermann. There are also many films from Ticino in the programme. Once again this year the event will be opened by a film shot in Ticino and of great importance for the culture of our region; a work that also tells of Ticino as a land of welcome for foreign artists who have found the peace and quiet they seek here. This is the documentary Loving Highsmith  by Eva Vitija, dedicated to the famous American writer Patricia Highsmith and filmed in the small towns of Aurigeno and Tegna, where the writer spent the last years of her life. The world premiere of the film by the Basel director is competing with seven other filmmakers for the main Prix de Soleure award.

In the Panorama Feature Films section we find the film Monte Verità - der Rausch der Freiheit by Stefan Jäger, shot in Ticino during 2020 with the support of the Ticino Film Commission and presented as a world premiere at the last Locarno Film Festival. The film was presented in cinemas last autumn to a good reception from German-speaking audiences and recently the preview run continued in Germany and Austria.

In the Opera Prima category, which rewards the first feature films by young filmmakers, the documentary Forma del primo movimento by Ticino-based director Tommaso Donati will be premiered. Graduated in film studies at the Eicar in Paris, the director, who lives and works in Lugano combines in his work a narrative approach with documentary cinema, focusing his gaze on the theme of marginalization. The film presented in Solothurn, whose title refers to a particular musical structure (also called the form of the first movement), follows the rehearsals of a future theatrical performance through the body movements of its protagonists. The film was shot in various locations throughout the Mendrisiotto and Lugano districts of Ticino.

The film The Maddock Manifesto (Das Maddock Manifest), directed by Dimitri Stapfer and shot at the Sambuco dam in Val Lavizzara, will also premiere in the Panorama Feature Films section. The film, produced by the Bern-based independent film production company Lomotion AG (David Fonjallaz Louis Mataré), takes us on an enigmatic cinematic journey - a modern fable about loneliness and the desire for change that shows our region through a very special lens. The cast includes Benjiamin Buger, also the play's screenwriter, and Clarisse Mialet.

Finally, we are pleased to point out in the Upcoming Talents program - a competition open to short films by students of Swiss and foreign universities and young self-taught filmmakers, with a prize of CHF 15,000 - the short film Tu che forse vedrai il sole by Andrea Franchino, a diploma film by CISA (Conservatorio Internazionale Scienze Audiovisive) and produced by the Lugano-based production company Central Productions. The short film, set in the Middle Ages during a period of war, was also shot in Ticino.

Finally, many films by Ticino directors were presented at the 57th edition of Solothurn Days which, although not filmed in Ticino, bring the sensitivity of the culture linked to our region as well as the Swiss Italian-speaking to an international audience.

In Hugo in Argentina, the Ticino director Stefano Knuchel leads us to reflect on the journey of the Italian language around the world through a portrait of the famous Italian and international cartoonist, illustrator and writer Hugo Pratt (1927-1995) captured in his South American experience. In the Opera Prima category, we find Zahorí, a film by the Swiss French director Marí Alessandrini from Ticino by adoption together with her partner and director of photography of the film Joakim Chardonnens. The film, a co-production between Switzerland, Argentina, Chile and France, was presented in the Concorso Cineasti del presente at Locarno. In the Prix du Public section, the Swiss premiere of 3/19 by Ticino-born director Silvio Soldini will be screened. The film, set in Milan, was co-produced by Ventura Film and RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera and stars Kasia Smutniak, the actress who received the prestigious Leopard Club Award last August at the Locarno Film Festival. The program also includes the world premiere of L'Afrique des femmes by Mohammed Soudani from Locarno. Filmed in the Ivory Coast, it was presented two years ago in Locarno among the "suspended projects" of the section "The Films after Tomorrow" and is the posthumous production of the late Tiziana Soudani, produced by Amka Films Productions and RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera in co-production with Nikady's Production and Pro-Human Equality. The film recounts a journey of discovery of a continent that has resolutely taken the path of integration into the world economy. Also the documentary Sognando un'isola (Dreaming of an island) by Ticino director Andrea Pellerani, produced by Amka Films Productions, takes us on a journey far from Ticino. Filmed on the Japanese island of Ikeshima, it is a dreamlike journey and a reflection on our relationship with the planet but also on social isolation and loneliness.

PRESENTATION OF THE FUND TO SUPPORT ITALIAN LANGUAGE IN SWISS CINEMA

The 57th Solothurn Film Days will also be an opportunity for the Ticino Film Commission to present the new Fund to support Italian language in Swiss cinema. The fund was inaugurated at the Solothurn Days and consists of incentives for development, translation and distribution. Conceived for films shot entirely or partially in Italian throughout Switzerland, the fund aims to improve the exchange of film culture in Switzerland and to facilitate the financing of films related to the territory and culture of Italian-speaking Switzerland.

The fund presentation event will be held on Thursday, 20.01.2022 at Uferbau, Ritterquai 8, 4500 Solothurn from 16:00 to 17:00.

Speakers:

Niccolò Castelli, Director of Ticino Film Commission
Denis Rabaglia, Chairman of the Board of Directors Société suisse des auteurs

With the collaboration of SSA, SUISSEIMAGE and RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera.

Immage: “Das Maddock Manifest” di Dimitri Stapfer