“Utopia Blues” wins double at Solothurn

A scene from "Utopia Blues". www.utopiablues.ch

The story of a young rock singer whose dreams for success clash with reality has won two of the top awards presented annually at the Solothurn film festival.

“Utopia Blues” by Zurich director Stefan Haupt was judged best feature film, and the Swiss Cinema Prize for best male actor went to Michael Finger for his portrayal of its central character. Finger plays the part of a determined blues ban leader who finds that his youthful ideals as a musician turn sour.

Andrea Guyer and Carol Schuler were joint-winners of the best female actress award for their roles in “Lieber Brad” directed by Lutz Konermann, while Georges Schwizgebel and Vadim Jendreyko received awards in the short film and documentary categories respectively.

The Swiss Film Prize is a joint initiative of eight organisations – including the federal culture office – involved in the promotion of Swiss films, and since 1998 the awards have been presented in Solothurn.

Before the festival ends on Sunday more than 30,000 visitors will have the chance to watch a record number of some 250 new films and videos.

But although it is regarded as a showcase for Swiss feature films and documentaries, the festival is much more than an opportunity for the public to attend the occasional première and for directors to compete for awards.

It also provides producers, distributors and other leading behind-the-scene players the chance to get together and exchange ideas, which usually have more to do with money than art.

This year’s programme has been widened to include films from Quebec, and among the guests is Natalie Barton, representing producers in the French-speaking Canadian province.

As well as being there to talk about the artistic merits of Quebec-made movies, Barton is exchanging ideas with her Swiss counterparts about financing.

Cultural subsidies

In the late 1980s, Quebec pioneered a system of financing cultural – as opposed to commercial – productions through tax credits. These, with some support from the federal government, can account for up to 25 per cent of production costs – and it’s all because of competition from the US film and television industry.

“The raison d’être of our cultural measures and investment in production at different government levels is because of our big neighbour,” Barton told swissinfo.

“If we didn’t have measures to ensure that there were Canadian productions on the airwaves at prime time, and to ensure that films were produced for the cinema and so on, we just wouldn’t have any of our own.”

Solothurn film festival director, Ivo Kummer, says he and others in the Swiss industry are looking forward to discussing public financing with their Canadian guests.

“There are similarities between Quebec and Switzerland apart from their having roughly the same population of about seven million,” he said, “so we’ll be doing some talking.”

Support for Swiss films

Annual public funding for Switzerland’s cultural film output was recently increased by the Confederation and with contributions from cantons, other local authorities and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, it totals about SFr60 million. This is about the same as the financial support given at various government levels to the Quebec film industry.

by Richard Dawson