Locarno Critics Week: Flying Scents – Of Plants and People
Swiss filmmaker Antshi von Moos discusses her feature documentary, world-premiering in Locarno, in which she explores the hyper-complex, borderline magical, connections between plants, insects and humans. The flying scents of the title are the volatile organic compounds used by plants and microbial organisms for communication (or, to put it scientifically, chemical signalling). “I wanted to make the plants perceptible as living beings,” Von Moos tells BDE. “And I wanted to find ways not to just talk about the plants, but also to make their hidden worlds tangible visually and also acoustically.”
Locarno Kids Screening: Fantastique by Marjolijn Prins
Guinean teenager Fanta is the acrobatic star of Marjolijn Prins’ feature debut, which world-premieres August 11 in Locarno Kids Screenings. Produced by Ellen De Waele and Mirna Everhard of Serendipity Films (Belgium), the film follows the girl as she seeks a place, together with her best friend Makhissa, within the world-renowned Amoukanama Circus. “Fanta’s discipline, openness, and drive to become an acrobat stood out immediately,” the director observes. “As I spent time with her, I saw the potential for a nuanced film about empowerment.”
Locarno Critics Week: Silent Legacy by Jenni Kivistö, Jussi Rastas
Finnish directors Jenni Kivistö and Jussi Rastas discuss their new documentary, world-premiering at the leading Swiss festival. In the film, dancer/choreographer Sibiry is caught in an existential no-man’s land between Finland, where he feels like an outsider, and the Burkina Faso village of his youth, where he has now acquired the status of privileged European. “Our aim has been to craft a multidimensional film in aesthetics...reflecting the internal experience of a migrant that has his mind constantly divided between two very contrasting realities.”
Locarno Critics Week: Green Light by Pavel Cuzuioc
German neuropsychiatrist Dr Johann Spittler, a man who seems both wise and compassionate, bears an enormous responsibility in assessing the decision-making capacity of individuals seeking assisted suicide. As a qualified doctor, he can also assist in their subsequent passing which, as we see in Pavel Cuzuioc’s Green Light, can be highly problematic. “[But] I'm convinced that this right of getting assisted is something every person should have,” Cuzuioc tells BDE before the film’s world premiere in Locarno. “It's not the state - or the law - that should forbid you that.”
