Swiss documentary shortlisted for award

The film “Europe, She Loves” gets into bed with real couples. Ramon Giger

The documentary “Europe, She Loves” by Zurich filmmaker Jan Gassmann, which follows the dreams and frustrations of four young couples living in four different European cities, has been shortlisted for the European Film Awards. 

The European Film AcademyExternal link announced on Tuesday that it had selected 15 films for consideration. Five of these will be nominated for the category “European Documentary 2016”. The winner will be announced on December 10 during the Film Prize Awards in 2016 European Capital of Culture Wroclaw, Poland. 

For the making of “Europe, She Loves” – which ran at this year’s Berlinale – director and screenwriter Gassmann and cinematographer Ramon Giger portrayed couples in Dublin, Thessaloniki, Tallinn and Seville. 

“Just as decisions have to be made in Brussels, be it out of rational, emotional or economic reasons, we can observe the same structures in the smallest of groups: a relationship. This documentary about four couples on the edge of Europe becomes a parable of a continent,” explains Gassmann on the film’s websiteExternal link. “I’m portraying my generation, the forgotten, the lost, the dissatisfied. Young people between twenty and thirty. A film without much political talking, but filmed in settings and places, where the political future of Europe will be decided.” 

Gassmann has been producing documentary and fiction films since 2003.