Shock resignation overshadowed Locarno film awards

Shuo Wang receives Golden Leopard award from festival director, Marco Müller Keystone

The Chinese director, Wang Shuo, won the prestigious Golden Leopard prize for his film "Baba" in the international competition of the 53rd Locarno film festival. However, the festival's director, Marco Müller, stole the show with a shock announcement.

Only a few hours before the list of winners was announced on Saturday, Marco Müller, told a news conference of his resignation. Visibly moved, Müller said he was going to move into film production and would travel to Bosnia on Monday to assist with the making of the war film “No Man’s Land”.

The “SonntagsZeitung” newspaper described Müller’s announcement as a “well-timed theatrical coup”, when people least expected it.

Müller was the festival’s director since 1991. His resignation was the second shock to overshadow the festival: its president Giuseppe Buffi died suddenly on July 20.

The newspaper “SonntagsZeitung” reported that the board of festival directors would have to appoint a new president by September 12 and a new director by this deadline. However, a member of the board, Marco Cameroni, said they could not produce someone for the director’s job out of thin air.

Yet there are, as the paper points out, still a few names of suitable candidates lingering in the memory of the board members, from when Müller threatened to resign in 1996. Jean Perret, the director of the Nyon film festival, is being tipped by the “SonntagsZeitung”, as is the Italian film critic, Irene Bignardi, and the Zurich cinema owner, This Brunner.

Indeed, Brunner’s reaction to Müller’s resignation was in no way complimentary. She told the Sunday newspaper: “I am particularly pleased about his departure. It was high time, too. Never before has the festival been full of such paradoxes in terms of film listings. Müller has trodden on a lot of toes in the last five years”.

Kaspar Kasics, the president of the Swiss federation of film directors and scriptwriters had kinder words for Müller. He said: “I’m saddened about his decision. Marco Müller is a man with good cinematographic judgement, with a vision that reaches well beyond national boundaries. His sometimes controversial stance and not always popular approach is merely a sign of quality”.

Müller launched several open attacks during his career with the Locarno festival team, when he complained about his lack of autonomy and the dwindling funds allocated to the annual event.

It was with a sense of satisfaction that the outgoing festival director proudly announced that the winning film was the banned movie “Baba”, which means father, and is a comedy exploring the difficult relationship between a widower and the son he is raising himself.

Müller, who is known to be an enthusiast of the Chinese cinema, explained the secrecy surrounding the film which had been brought in as a surprise screening: “No customs and passport officials will ever let the director of a banned film leave China if they know the banned film is going to play in the foreign country where the director is heading.”

“Baba”, which was made in 1996, was outlawed by the Film Office before it even had chance to reach the Censor’s Office.

Its director, Wang Shuo, was born in 1958 in Nanjing and rose rapidly in the Chinese cultural scene, establishing himself as one of his country’s leading literary figures. He has often been reprimanded by the authorities in the People’s Republic for negatively influencing young people.

Wang spent several years in exile in the United States but returned to China where he is still speaking out against the regime as a writer and polemicist.

swissinfo with agencies