Far From the Villages vies for honours at Amsterdam
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Swiss-French director Olivier Zuchuat’s Swiss documentary Far From the Villages is among the 17 titles selected to screen in the prestigious Joris Ivens Competition at the 21st Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival (November 20-30).
Produced by Pierre-Alain Meier (Prince Film) and Xavier Carniaux (AMIP), the film was shot in April 2006 in eastern Chad in a Darfur refugee camp.
The title won the Médiathèques Award at the Marseilles International Documentary Film Festival in July.
Passionate about Africa, Zuchuat has explored the continent in his previous works Mah Damba Cissoko, une griotte en exil (“Mah Damba Cissoko, A Morello Cherry in Exile”, 2002) and Djourou, A Rope Around Your Neck (2005).
The Panorama section is presenting another Swiss documentary with an African theme, Togo by Pierre Morath and Nicholas J. Peart (Tarantula Suisse), which follows the Togo football team during the 2006 World Cup and describes the impact their qualification had on the country. The film received the Human Rights League Award at the Brussels Freedom Festival in October.
Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter has also selected Swiss director Peter Mettler’s Gambling, Gods and LSD in his Top 10. Meanwhile, Dutch director Mari Soppela’s Home Recordings – co-produced by Zurich-based Vega Film – will screen in the Premieres from the Lowlands section.
Mathieu Loewer Cineuropa.org