Parallel Sections

By evoking the fate of magnate William Randolph Hearst, Orson Welles created the most revered fiction feature of all time. The film serves as irrefutable proof that the biopic, a cinematic genre that is at times disparaged, is essential to cinema’s success. It is therefore with great pleasure that the Fribourg International Film Festival is showing a selection of biopics in all its various forms, from renowned masterpieces to gems from around the world.

FIFF is always intrigued by the meeting of cultures, so it wasn’t going to miss the bicentenary of Nova Friburgo, the Brazilian town with a population of nearly 200,000 inhabitants founded by a colony of families hailing mainly from Fribourg. A documentary recounting the story, three gems of recent Brazilian cinema and a back-and-forth of short films – filmed in Brazil by Swiss filmmakers and here by Brazilians – are the icing on the birthday cake for this anniversary commemorating a time when the Swiss were migrants.

She left Turkey to live in Switzerland, has run cinemas, was instrumental in developing Locarno and, since 1988, has made the Berlinale European Film Market one of the biggest in the world. After holding the position of Director, she was appointed President in 2014. The world of cinema bows down before Beki Probst. She is the grande dame of the industry and the FIFF is honoured that she has agreed to present five films close to her heart that express so vividly the troubles of her homeland.

Since 2004, the Festival de Cannes has been presenting restored copies of sometimes little-known masterpieces in the Cannes Classics section. In 2017, more than 20 films were screened. The programme, which is less well publicised than the other sections, is particularly dear to Cannes general delegate Thierry Frémaux. We are honoured that he has agreed to choose five titles that will make Fribourg the first festival in the world to pay homage to the section.

After trekking through Nepal in 2017, FIFF audiences are going to take a ride through an entirely different cinematic landscape: the steppes of Mongolia, home to a lyrical style of filmmaking, over which looms the figure of Genghis Khan. Mongolia is the least densely populated country in the world – 3 million people inhabit a territory that is 38 times bigger than Switzerland! – and is renowned for productions that transform modest budgets into westerns on a level of quality and spectacle to rival Hollywood.

After the Dardenne brothers, British filmmaker Ken Loach, another two-time winner of the Palme d’or (The Wind That Shakes the Barley in 2006 and I, Daniel Blake in 2016), has agreed to oversee our carte blanche section. The director, with around fifty films to his name, has never sought accolades. His films are model examples of that most difficult of art forms, making simple and truthful films that try to improve the world – making Loach the exception rather than the rule. The five films he has chosen for you share this prime objective.