How much does a film festival have to do with politics? A journey between Federal Council speeches, diplomatic aperitifs and Bollywood euphoria.
The Gran Rex cinema shakes as Shah Rukh Khan poses for selfies with the audience.
Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone
The Merlot loosens the tongue, the scorching heat the dress code, and cinema fever does the rest: the Locarno Film Festival is not only a meeting place for film buffs, but also a place where art and politics flirt. Away from the darkness of the cinema halls, where the content is often gloomy, people meet representatives of interests. At cocktail receptions, parties and dinners, people discuss, intrigue and lobby in the haze of the days and nights, which offer little relief this year.
Various members of the National Council, including President Eric Nussbaumer, also appreciate the atmosphere for relaxed exchanges; they tend to rush from event to event rather than from film to film. The opposite is probably true for former Federal Councillor Ruth Dreifuss, who says she has not missed an edition of this film festival for at least 35 years. She will also be at the unofficial opening, the gathering of guests from politics, culture and business, and the reception on Monte Verità. Over the last ten years, Alain Berset and Marco Solari have been engaging in highly intellectual exchanges here.
A female duo sets the tone
Now, as is well known, Elisabeth Baume-Schneider has been replaced in the Ministry of Culture and Maja Hoffmann in the festival presidency. The two of them are arranging their first joint appearance as a French dialogue (with blackbird song in the background) – less entertaining, but no less substantial than the rhetorical cockfight of recent years. Baume-Schneider, once the long-standing president of the Federal Film Commission, is astonishing with some of her opinions. For example, she says that not much needs to change in domestic filmmaking, it should carry on as before, instead of being unsettled by its “not so vibrant” cinema statistics.
Maja Hoffmann makes her debut as festival president.
Jean-Christophe Bott / EPA
Hoffmann states, among other things, that her favorite goal is to welcome all art disciplines in Locarno. She may still seem a little brittle compared to her sparkling predecessor, but she is clearly in a better mood than she was in her shockingly erratic opening speech a few days earlier. And there is always hope for further improvement – one guarantor of this is sitting on the floor in the audience: Zurich’s mayor Corine Mauch, who was a terrible speaker when she took office fifteen years ago, has long since become confident in this official role.
But in fact there are a few too many speeches at this festival anyway; that’s just how it is when politics is involved. Over risotto and prosecco, the mottos are repeated in series, like a mantra that the art of film breaks down barriers or breaks down boundaries; the contemporary box of buzzwords is plundered, from “diversity” to “inclusion” to “spirit”. Again and again you hear that peace needs film. Or does film need peace? And in the background the leopard bares its teeth. The festival can easily handle such contradictions – perhaps the kitten is neutral and is just defending itself.
Artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro (left) with Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who criticizes the Swiss Federal Council for cutting budgets for international films.
Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone
The Pardo appears almost dreamy in this year’s official poster, designed by the American photographer Annie Leibovitz: she has transplanted the predator to Lake Maggiore as if it were its natural habitat. Only experts can say whether it is a male or a female, but either way the female element seems to be strengthened in this edition – also thanks to many strong female roles in the film program and the visit of the New Zealand master director Jane Campion.
The leopard print is omnipresent in the streets and shop windows; hardly any other city is as influenced by its film festival as Locarno. And the closeness can also be a strength: which other large festival gives visitors this feeling of being part of a dense history that is currently being written in a community? The regional roots are also reflected in the reception for the Ticino cantonal parliament, one of the most important institutional events in the program. Even Maja Hoffmann addresses a few words to the guests before Ticino products such as the first-class prosciutto crudo from Alp Piora and gnocchi with Luganiga ragout are served.
Two foreign ministers on a joint mission on Lake Maggiore: Ignazio Cassis and his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani (left).
Jean-Christophe Bott / EPA
Ambassador and the scent of the wide world
It is clear that the cultivation of local culture is not the new president’s strength, but we have learned from her that “Locarno is bigger than Switzerland.” That is how she recently put it in the “Tages-Anzeiger,” referring to the fame that this sleepy little town enjoys in the wider world of cinema. The film festival also represents the longing for this, and hopes are resting on Hoffmann’s worldwide network of contacts since she descended into the lowlands of Lake Maggiore like a dea ex machina.
Marco Solari, on the other hand, created the Giornata della diplomazia over twenty years ago to cultivate international relations – not a crash course for idiots, but an invitation for all foreign ambassadors in Switzerland. Here, too, Hoffmann’s appearance is brief and unprepared, and he says, in essence, that he does not yet really know what the purpose of this meeting is. Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis and his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani, who signed a joint declaration on Ukraine on the Brissago Islands on the same day, speak later.
Minister of Culture Elisabeth Baume-Schneider at the Castello Visconteo in Locarno, where the film industry is discussing future challenges.
Jean-Christophe Bott / Keystone
Tajani emphasises that this film festival strengthens the dialogue between cultures, and his ambassador Gian Lorenzo Cornado praises the friendship between the two countries, which, in addition to values and a language, share “undoubtedly the most beautiful border region in Europe”. When politics and art meet, things sometimes get a little flowery, but it is almost always about money. This time, the news that the FDFA is cutting its funding for international filmmaking, which also goes to the international Locarno section “Open Doors”, by almost half to 2 million francs is causing controversy. The reason given is that the money is needed to help rebuild Ukraine. However, Oscar-winning Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón (“Roma”) publicly urged the Federal Council at the festival to reconsider the decision.
Which brings us to the question of how political such a festival can and must be, given the current global situation. The world does not remain outside; its upheavals shape conversations. At most, it touches on the program – and hardly on the Piazza Grande, which Baume-Schneider described at the opening as a showcase and symbol of a “cosmopolitan, lively Switzerland”. This character of bringing people together is also evident on one of the last evenings: while cowboys and girls ride through the vastness of the pampas in the delightfully laconic Piazza film “Gaucho Gaucho”, the romantic song by the Italian singer Gianluca Grignani, who is giving a concert in the nearby Rotonda, interrupts.
Director Giona A. Nazzaro presents Shah Rukh Khan with the Honorary Leopard on the Piazza Grande.
Jean-Christophe Bott / EPA
Shah Rukh Khan rocks the festival
This small cultural bridge is nothing compared to the one built by a Bollywood icon lured with the honorary leopard: only a fraction of the visitors are likely to have seen even one of the hundred films starring Shah Rukh Khan, and none are shown on the Piazza. But they fall for his charm in droves (Corine Mauch, when asked about his appearance, exclaims “awesome!”). On the Piazza Grande, the Indian superstar conjures up the boundary-breaking power of film art, which need not be political or intellectual. The next day, the Gran Rex cinema is bursting at the seams, festival director Giona A. Nazzaro invites people to talk, many are beside themselves, shouting and calling out – and in the end almost eat their idol before Nazzaro calls for calm: “He loves you, and you can show him your love by letting him breathe!”
The Federal Councillor and the Festival President talk on Monte Verità.
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The film festival, which ends this Saturday and is expected to attract more visitors than the last edition, has pulled off a coup with this star guest. And it has broadened horizons for all those who see the West as the center of the planet: Given that Khan’s film audience is likely to comprise almost half the world’s population, Brad Pitt, who is almost the same age, is a local celebrity. In his appearances, the 58-year-old Indian scores points with humor, which is unfortunately rare in the festival’s film program. At one point he breaks a lance for women so convincingly, in the film business as elsewhere, that you almost have to call it political. And many politicians could learn a thing or two from his ability to interact casually with the people.
