Big Little Women

29DecWednesday January 10th, 2024 By First Hand Films

How can one talk about feminist struggles in a tender way with an enlightened patriarch?

Under the influence of a very personal poetic potion, Nadia Fares transforms the homage to her beloved Egyptian father into a chronicle of the situation of women in Egypt and in Switzerland. She explores the effects of patriarchal tradition as a mirror effect between Orient and Occident.

The Last Queen

22DecMonday August 28th, 2023 By First Hand Films

Spectacular costume drama from Algeria

Algeria, 1516. The pirate Aroudj Barbarossa, together with King Salim Toumi, drives the Spanish occupiers out of Algiers. But the peace is short-lived: rumour has it that Barbarossa has murdered the king and declared himself ruler. When everyone from the royal court flees, only Queen Zaphira stands up to him. Between history and legend, her rebellion tells of the personal and political turmoil she endures for the sake of Algiers.

The cinema spectacle from Algeria is the first of its kind and reproduces the multilingual and diverse world of the Maghreb at historical sites. Told for the first time from a female perspective, THE LAST QUEEN – EL AKHIRA breaks with tradition and creates space for a woman who becomes a heroine in adversity.

It is a story Algerians have never seen before and they need it to dig deep into their history and culture. – Cineuropa

The debut feature co-directed by Algerian director-actress Adila Bendimerad and French-Algerian director Damien Ounouri – immerses us, swinging between refined court life and bloody battles, royal splendour and fights to the last blood.
to the last blood. – Cineuropa

Co-director/co-writer Damien Ounouri described the film as
a costume drama, and he wasn’t lying. But it felt like so much more. It felt like a good episode of Game of Thrones. – Universal Cinema

The Last Queen (113 minutes) explores under-represented chapters of history and offers ample space for expurgated perspectives and voices. It is an intimate and beautifully shot period piece about a complicated female heroic figure. – High on Films

Something You Said Last Night

19SepWednesday November 1st, 2023 By First Hand Films

Ren, who is in her mid-twenties, goes on holiday with her Italian-Canadian parents and her younger sister Siena. Her family doesn’t know that she recently lost her job. Ren tries to find her way around the beach resort, which is geared towards retirees, and to escape her parents’ loving but overprotective ways, while her sister keeps the family on their toes with her rebellious outbursts. Knowing that Ren will be even more dependent on her parents’ support after the holidays, the resort house feels more and more confining.

In this refreshingly cliché-free film, writer-director Luis De Filippis tells of vibrant family dynamics and explores a Millennial’s conflicted desire to be independent yet cared for. While the film perfectly captures the tenor of a summer holiday where sunshine, watered-down booze, boredom and awkwardness are standard, there is an underlying sense of the slight unease that afflicts Ren as a trans woman in a conservative resort. Beyond melodramatic stereotypes, De Filippis and her team show us a world that authentically represents the trans experience.

Invisible Frontliners

09AugTuesday November 1st, 2022 By First Hand Films

There are jobs without which society would not function. Who are those caretakers, the people who keep everyday life going, who keep the homes clean, provide food, and make it possible for the rest of us to live and work comfortably even during a pandemic?

In Switzerland, there is a basic lack of social recognition for these frontliners. Before, many of them were largely invisible. That has changed. Society today is aware of the value of their work. But what has really changed? And how do these hard workers feel about the attention they suddenly got? Why do they stay in their jobs and what would they change?
The film gives a voice to those that usually remain silent and invisible: a single mother, a young nurse, a sales manager and mother of three, a politically active child care worker and a Portuguese immigrant working as restaurant manager. In a very fine and silent way, harsh realities are addressed and the big topics of these frontliners become close and clear.

Solothurner Filmtage

It Is Not Over Yet

19JulTuesday September 13th, 2022 By First Hand Films

At the small retirement home Dagmarsminde, the founding nurse May Bjerre Eiby has no interest in specific dementia diagnoses or medicine, since neither is improving the quality of life for the 11 residents. Instead, May and her staff have developed a new kind of treatment inspired by the methods that Florence Nightingale introduced 150 years ago. The goal is to inspire a complete change in the way people with dementia are treated in the healthcare system, shifting from medicine to care.

Le Film de mon père

23JunFriday July 28th, 2023 By First Hand Films

Filmmaker Jules Guarneri grew up in Villars among his adopted siblings in a chalet that is regularly haunted by the ghost of his mother. His father, head and guardian of the family chalets, films himself daily and hands over his cinematic legacy to Jules with the instruction that he should make his first film from it. Thus begins a tricky, intimate and at times pleasurable journey into Jules’ independence.

LE FILM DE MON PÈRE ultimately becomes a very different film from the one his father imagined. Jules Guarneri takes an empathetic and reflexive look at this somewhat neurotic family material and humorously performs a symbolic patricide on the cutting board. The resulting family portrait celebrated its world premiere at the Vision du Réel, where it was awarded the Jury Prize.

Je Suis Noires

16JunMonday September 18th, 2023 By First Hand Films

SWISS FILM PRIZE

In Switzerland, a country of neutrality, new, unfamiliar voices are being heard. Voices of women who fight for the recognition of structural racism, deconstruct stereotypes and confess their double identity as Swiss and Black. It is in this context that Rachel M’Bon begins her own search for identity. On her way to liberation, she questions her past, her present and holds up a mirror to her country and her peers.

The strength and determination with which Rachel M’Bon confronts her past is the strength of this film, which represents an important step towards opening up a discourse that has been suppressed for too long. Together with filmmaker Juliana Fanjul, the Swiss-Congolese journalist interrogates her country and portrays six protagonists. Each of them tells a story that reflects her own personal path to liberation.

We show the film in combination with the short film ETHEREALITY by Kantarama Gahigiri.
Stranded in space for 30 years. How does it feel to finally come home? A reflection on migration and the sense of belonging.

Kantarama Gahigiri is a Rwandan-Swiss filmmaker. In 2004 she won the prestigious Fullbright Award and moved to New York where she completed her Masters in Film. Her first feature film TAPIS ROUGE was screened and awarded worldwide.

Mediterranean Fever

09JunFriday July 28th, 2023 By First Hand Films

Waleed (40) lives in Haifa with his wife and children and dreams of a writing career while suffering from chronic depression. He develops a close relationship with his neighbor (a small-time crook) with an ulterior plot in mind. While the scheme turns into an unexpected friendship between the two men, it leads them into a journey of dark encounters.

In this humorous thriller-drama, Maha Haj draws a delicate portrait of the Palestinian existence. She takes the fictional character Waleed to extremes and thus reflects on the state of an entire society.

Press review
A delicate balance between comedy and darker drama throughout.
The Hollywood Reporter

A mixture of comedy, thriller and character study.
In Haifa, an unlikely friendship between two neighbours is the basis of a new exploration of masculinity and mental illness.
Screendaily

A black comedy full of surprises.
Cineuropa

A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love

02JunSaturday February 18th, 2023 By First Hand Films

She thought it would never happen to her again.
He didn’t even know such a thing existed.
A woman, a boy and another impossible love story.

Anna (Sophie Rois) is 60, lives alone in West Berlin and has left her career as a celebrated acting star long behind her. Adrian (Milan Herms) is 17 years old and has stolen Anna’s handbag on the open street. Normally, two such different people would probably not meet a second time, but fate has other plans. Anna, who apart from her neighbour Michel (Udo Kier) has virtually no social contacts, is persuaded to become a voice coach and give lessons to a young man with a speech impediment. And as chances would have it, her new student is none other than Adrian.

In AEIOU, Nicolette Krebitz designs a relationship that not only surprises with a lot of tenderness and a wild, poetic hand stroke, but also turns both characters into individuals of integrity, self-empowered with each other, learning. Neither feels guilt, neither feels shame, both feel love and yet remain completely with themselves, lonely together, but not in the discouragement usually inherent in that phrase. On the contrary, it is a wild, unpredictable courage that stands above everything and leads the character development. Axel Timo Purr, Artechock

Becoming Giulia

13MayWednesday October 18th, 2023 By First Hand Films

Giulia Tonelli, principal dancer at the Zurich Opera House, returns from maternity leave. She has to fight to find her place and a new balance, between the competitive and extremely demanding world of an elite ballet company and her new family life. The documentary is an unprecedented immersion in the microcosm of a great opera house from 2019-2021, an intimate and committed look at the journey of a woman who reclaims her own body and herself to be back on stage.

The best films for swiss cinemas

Author: First Hand Films