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Locarno: German films and co-productions looking for leopards

Festivals

Locarno: German films and co-productions looking for leopards

The little Swiss town on the shores of Lago Maggiore will be turning into the venue of one of the world's oldest A-category film festivals again from 4 to 14 August, 2021: the Locarno Film Festival will be presenting a wide-ranging programme with a special eye for great cinematic art for the 74th time. This year's International Competition and many other sections will include a large number of German films and co-productions: it was announced during today's press conference that a total of 20 titles – from shorts to feature films – have been programmed in the line-up.

Sabrina Sarabi's second feature film NO ONE'S WITH THE CALVES (Weydemann Bros.) will celebrate its world premiere in the Concorso Cineasti del presente (Filmmakers of the Present) competition which focuses on works by up-and-coming directors. The drama tells the story of the loneliness and unfulfilled dreams of 24-year-old Christin, who is in danger of being suffocated in the calves' stable by the deceptive idyll of rural life. Saskia Rosendahl (FABIAN – GOING TO THE DOGS), Rick Okon (THE BOAT) and Godehard Giese (TRANSIT) star in the drama based on Alina Herbing's successful eponymous novel.

The Piazza Grande is both known as one of the most beautiful open-air locations as well as being very popular with audiences: MONTE VERITÀ by Stefan Jäger, a co-production between Switzerland, Austria and Germany, can be seen on the big screen of this unique open-air cinema. Hannah Herzsprung and Julia Jentsch are in the cast of the film about the notorious sanatorium which became a meeting place for artists and dropouts at the beginning of the 20th century.

The two German filmmakers Nicolaas Schmidt and Nicolas Gebbe have each been selected for the competition for short and medium-length films, Pardi di domani, with FIRST TIME [THE TIME FOR ALL BUT SUNSET - VIOLET] and THE SUNSET SPECIAL, respectively. This section will also present two German co-productions NIGHT (DE/QA/JO/PS) by Ahmad Saleh and STEAKHOUSE (SI/DE/FR) by Špela Čadež. DEAR TO ME (DE/ID) by Monica Vanesa Tedja, another short film from Germany, will be shown at the Open Doors Screenings are presenting a curated selection of films focusing on Southeast Asia in 2021.

The two German projects CARLA'S ENZO by Adelfiano Oberto and Elmar Imanov and ZEIT DER MONSTER by Florian Hoffmann were selected for Alliance 4 Development, the platform for co-productions from Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy. The German production companies Cologne's Color of May and Berlin-based Chromosom Film will be taking part.

German films and co-productions are represented in eight of the eleven sections. An overview of all the titles with German participation in Locarno 2021 can be found here.