Miscellaneous Thriller about Covid opens Visions du Réel documentary film festival
"Blame" is a science thriller by Solothurn filmmaker Christian Frei about the beginnings of Covid. The film opens the Visions du Réel documentary film festival on April 4 (-13.04.) in Nyon, Vaud.
12.03.2025, 11:01
SDA
"Blame" goes back to the origins of the Covid pandemic. It focuses on three scientists who issued warnings back in 2003 and came into the spotlight with the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. The feature-length film questions the role of science in relation to political power, also against the backdrop of Donald Trump's election as the 47th US President.
Incidentally, filmmaker Christian Frei from the canton of Solothurn made "War Photographer", the first Swiss documentary film to be nominated for an Oscar in the corresponding category in 2002. Emilie Bujès, artistic director of Visions du Réel, referred to this in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency.
Many international films
An unusually large number of countries are represented in the program of this year's edition, Bujès added. From April 4 to 13, 154 films from 57 countries are on the program. Films from Mongolia, Australia, Slovenia, Cameroon and Argentina as well as a Swiss co-production will be competing in the international competition for feature films. In the "Burning Lights" category, which is dedicated to new film forms, films from China, Lebanon, Canada and Poland will be shown. Two Swiss co-productions have been included in this selection.
In the national competition, "Toute ma vie" by Matias Carlier, produced by Lionel Baier, is on the program. The film is about a teenager who shuttles back and forth between care homes and his mother's house and races down the steep streets of Lausanne on his bike to let off steam. Or "Sediments" by Laura Coppens, in which a granddaughter wonders how she is supposed to love her grandfather, who lived in Nazi Germany and later in the GDR, where he worked undercover for the Stasi. A total of 31 Swiss films and co-productions are programmed at this year's Visions du Réel; last year there were 25.
Raoul Peck is guest of honor
The Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck ("James Baldwin - I Am Not Your Negro") is the guest of honor. Romanian filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu is the special guest, and Visions du Réel welcomes Portuguese director Claudia Varejao as part of the Atelier.
A special screening is dedicated to Richard Dindo. The Swiss filmmaker passed away in Paris on February 12. His film "Dani, Michi, Renato & Max" about the youth movement in Zurich in 1980-81 is scheduled to be shown. Dindo was "Maître du Réel" in 2014, the title of guest of honor at the time.
