A rich program of Swiss films and music comes to Fužine • Films on current topics will to inspire conversations and debates
Gorski Kotar and Switzerland are regions with similar landscapes, havens of untouched beauty, kingdoms of lush greenery where nature reigns. It is therefore not surprising that Switzerland has become the partner country of this year’s Cinehill, which runs from 22 to 27 July in Fužine. The rich program is organised in cooperation with the Embassy of Switzerland in Croatia and the Swiss film agency, Swiss Films.
“Last year, we inaugurated the festival with the Swiss feature Dog on Trial, of actress and director Laetitia Dosch, and it opened our eyes to how little we know about Swiss cinema. So we did our best to research the Swiss filmmaking and came up with a range of wonderful and intriguing films, prompting us to make Switzerland our partner country this year”, explains Cinehill director Igor Mirković. This year, the first screenings will also be dedicated to the Alpine cinema. Pianist Cinzia Regensburger will play the live accompaniment to The Sun of St. Moritz, a classic silent film from 1923 depicting the winter holidays of the fashionable elite vacationing at the heart of European winter tourism.
The main program will feature director Petra Volpe’s new title arriving from Berlinale, Late Shift, which portrays a regular night of an extremely overworked nurse, that comes with an important warning: the world is currently short on nurses – by about 6 million! Also coming to Cinehill will be this year’s contender for best Swiss film, Queens, directed by Klaudia Reynicke, which won the prestigious award at the Swiss Film Awards in Geneva. A trait of Swiss filmmaking is that its stories are not bound by national borders, but often travel abroad, as is the case with this year’s best Swiss film, which takes place entirely in Peru. The documentary Riverboom tells the story of three unusual reporters who travel across wartime Afghanistan, while the comedy Bonjour Switzerland addresses the usual topics affecting this Alpine federation: in this case, a referendum that threatens to reduce the number of national languages.
The partner country program also includes two unusual films, which will undoubtedly spark numerous festival debates. The Last Screenwriter is a story based on the script wholly written by artificial intelligence. This film demonstrates the extent to which machine learning tools can play a part in the most creative aspect of filmmaking – in shaping stories and writing dialogue, which will be an opportunity for another conversation on the topic of “Artificial intelligence: if yes, how and how much, if no, why not?”. The theme of the documentary Our Wolves is contained in the very title, and it is a story about sustainability and coexistence of humans with nature. It creates a dialogue between scientists who fight for the protection of predators and residents who fear attacks on people and livestock. This topic is also very relevant in Gorski Kotar, the only natural habitat of wolves, bears and lynxes, which is why domestic and Swiss scientists will talk about finding a favourable balance between protecting humans and protecting wolf populations.
We should also mention a cinematic treat for the youngest audience – the family puppet film Sauvages, directed by Claude Barras. The environmentalist story about forest devastation, which has been winning the hearts of children and parents around the world in recent months, will have its Croatian premiere at Cinehill.
The ties between Gorski Kotar and Switzerland do not end with similar mountainous landscapes. “Thanks to the Swiss-Croatian Cooperation Programme, we have especially close ties with the Gorski Kotar region. Switzerland has been working on improving the living conditions in the region and supporting sustainable economic development by ensuring a reliable supply of high-quality drinking water in Gorski Kotar. Investments in wastewater infrastructure will also play a key role in preserving the region’s ground and surface waters, thus contributing to environmental protection”, highlights Swiss Ambassador to Croatia Urs Hammer, adding that the program has been extended until 2029 with a new support in the amount of 45 million Swiss francs.
Also coming from Switzerland will be a number of distinguished film guests, the full list of which will be announced soon. The festival’s music program will be enhanced by Hornbox, a Swiss band blending an excentric mixture of sounds, and mixing covers and original compositions with the aesthetic of the sixties and seventies. Their fantastic music fusion, from funky sounds to jazz ballads and Latin rhythms, will transform the evening ushering in unbridled fun. The budget ticket bundles for the film program, the Big Hill and Little Hill ticket bundles, are already on pre-sale. The bundles are on pre-sale online until 7 July, when individual tickets also go on sale. They can be purchased via this link: https://cinehill.eu/ulaznice Cinehill is supported by the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, the Kvarner and Gorski Kotar Tourist Boards, and co-organised with the Municipality of Fužine.
