Swiss films win awards at Berlinale film festival

Cyril Schäublin won the best director award in the "Encounters" category for his film Unrueh (Unrest) at the 72nd Berlinale International Film Festival Berlin Keystone / Andreas Rentz / Pool

Three Swiss films have been awarded special prizes at the 72^nd Berlinale film festival in the German capital.

Filmmaker Michael Koch from Lucerne won a special mentionExternal link on Wednesday in the “International” jury category for his film Drii Winter(A Piece of Sky). Cyril Schäublin won the best director prize for his film Unrueh(Unrest) in the “Encounters” jury category. The co-production A vendredi, Robinson (See you Friday, Robinson) by director Mitra Farahani won a special jury award.

Eleven Swiss films were in contention for prizes at this year’s Berlinale, an 11-day festival that ranks along with Cannes and Venice among Europe’s top cinema showcases.

Drii Winter is Michael Koch’s second feature film. It recounts a love story set in a Swiss mountain village. Shot with non-professional actors, it is the first film in Swiss-German to be presented at the Berlinale.

Cyril Schäublin’s feature film Unrueh takes place at the end of the 19th century in the watch factories of the Jura region in northwest Switzerland. Russian revolutionary Peter Kropotkin witnesses the creation of an anarchist union by workers exasperated by employment conditions. 

A vendredi, Robinson is a documentary on the correspondence and relationship between cinema legends Jean-Luc Godard and Ebrahim Golestan. The film was co-produced by France, Lebanon, Iran and Switzerland.

Franco-Swiss director Ursula Meier, who presented La Ligne (The line) in this year’s international competition, left empty-handed. In 2012 she won the Silver Bear for her film L’enfant d’en haut (Sister).

This year’s top award, the Golden Bear, went to the Catalan film Alcarràs by director Carla Simón. The drama depicts the last harvest season of a family of Catalan peach farmers, whose livelihood is threatened when the owner of their land decides to replace the fruit trees with solar panels.