As the new crop of 2023 festival favorites roll out, Focus Features presents A Thousand And One in over 900 carefully curated theaters, testing the appetite for specialty fare at a challenging moment.
Short film and video director A.V. Rockwell’s feature-length debut stars Teyana Taylor as free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing New York City. Reviews are stellar, see Deadline’s. The winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize is at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 82% with auds. The fest called it “an elegant ode to the terribly beautiful power of family as an anchor in an ever-changing world, making us into who we are in ways we can only haltingly understand.”
This film, like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in...
Short film and video director A.V. Rockwell’s feature-length debut stars Teyana Taylor as free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing New York City. Reviews are stellar, see Deadline’s. The winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize is at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 82% with auds. The fest called it “an elegant ode to the terribly beautiful power of family as an anchor in an ever-changing world, making us into who we are in ways we can only haltingly understand.”
This film, like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in...
- 3/31/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
La ligne
Excluding her docu features, Ursula Meier is now at the three feature film mark with La ligne (The Line) – a project that began lensing in Switzerland around this time last year. Co-written by Stéphanie Blanchoud, Antoine Jaccoud and Meier (with additional help from Robin Campillo and Nathalie Najem), this stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, India Hair, Benjamin Biolay and Blanchoud as Margaret — this reunites the filmmaker with with her cinematographer Agnès Godard. Meier moves from shipwrecked family in 2008’s Home to disproportionately supporting one’s sibling in 2012’s L’enfant d’en haut to a film that pokes the family tree with a stick.…...
Excluding her docu features, Ursula Meier is now at the three feature film mark with La ligne (The Line) – a project that began lensing in Switzerland around this time last year. Co-written by Stéphanie Blanchoud, Antoine Jaccoud and Meier (with additional help from Robin Campillo and Nathalie Najem), this stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, India Hair, Benjamin Biolay and Blanchoud as Margaret — this reunites the filmmaker with with her cinematographer Agnès Godard. Meier moves from shipwrecked family in 2008’s Home to disproportionately supporting one’s sibling in 2012’s L’enfant d’en haut to a film that pokes the family tree with a stick.…...
- 1/11/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
From Thomas Imbach’s “Nemesis” and Michele Pennetta’s “Il Mio Corpo” to a 13-title National Competition – featuring Nick Brandestini’s section winner “Sapelo,” celebrated French screenwriter Antoine Jaccoud’s directorial debut “Back to Visegrad” and Tribeca world premiere “Wake Up on Mars – ” this year’s Visions du Réel festival proved, as ever, a notable launchpad for Swiss documentaries.
Held online on May 4, a Swiss Films presentation of five upcoming doc features added to this impact, and suggested much about the nature of Switzerland documentary scene.
A power in movie production – in 2018 only Europe’s “big five” territories and Russia produced more features – Switzerland is also a European doc talent hub. The five docs presented Monday were all produced by Swiss companies. Only one, Roland Colla’s “W. What Remains of the Lie” was directed by a Swiss director, though at least there of the other helmers have either studied...
Held online on May 4, a Swiss Films presentation of five upcoming doc features added to this impact, and suggested much about the nature of Switzerland documentary scene.
A power in movie production – in 2018 only Europe’s “big five” territories and Russia produced more features – Switzerland is also a European doc talent hub. The five docs presented Monday were all produced by Swiss companies. Only one, Roland Colla’s “W. What Remains of the Lie” was directed by a Swiss director, though at least there of the other helmers have either studied...
- 5/4/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
New projects by Claire Denis and Asghar Farhadi, the first fiction feature by Alice Diop and a documentary by Régis Sauder will also be co-produced by the cinema branch of the Franco-German channel. The second selection committee for 2020 of Arte France Cinéma (headed by Olivier Père) has chosen to engage in co-production and in pre-buying on five projects. Standing out among them is La Ligne, which will be the third fiction feature from Franco-Swiss director Ursula Meier following Home (Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2008) and Sister (Silver Bear special prize winner at the 2012 Berlinale). For the record, the filmmaker also presented in the Panorama section of the 2018 Berlinale the TV fiction Shock Waves – Diary of My Mind. Written by Ursula Meier together with Stéphanie Blanchoud (who will also be playing the lead role) in collaboration with Antoine Jaccoud and with the participation of Robin Campillo...
Locarno, Switzerland — There’s a moment near the beginning of Bettina Oberli’s latest film, “With the Wind,” where Pauline seems to have her world all sorted out.
She flies into a tis when her vet sister suggests she should inspect the cows on their family farm in the remote Jura mountains, which Pauline has spent 15 years with partner Alex turning into a near self-sustainable unit. She takes in a student, Galina, from Chernobil, thinking a month on the farm will be healthy for her, laughs at Galina’s flailing attempts to get a signal for her cell phone, holding it high to the heavens up on the nearest hill.
Then Samuel, a world-shuttling engineer, arrives to erect a wind turbine and makes Pauline ask herself whether she has made a life choice without knowing well enough other options.
By the time of her fifth feature, Oberli could also be...
She flies into a tis when her vet sister suggests she should inspect the cows on their family farm in the remote Jura mountains, which Pauline has spent 15 years with partner Alex turning into a near self-sustainable unit. She takes in a student, Galina, from Chernobil, thinking a month on the farm will be healthy for her, laughs at Galina’s flailing attempts to get a signal for her cell phone, holding it high to the heavens up on the nearest hill.
Then Samuel, a world-shuttling engineer, arrives to erect a wind turbine and makes Pauline ask herself whether she has made a life choice without knowing well enough other options.
By the time of her fifth feature, Oberli could also be...
- 8/3/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Handling more films than any other international sales agent at this year’s Locarno Festival, Europe’s biggest mid-summer film event, Brussels-based B For Films will represent new films by Bettina Oberli, one of Switzerland’s most popular cineasts, Canadian Philippe Lesage’s return to A-fest international competition after debut “The Demons” dazzled at San Sebastian, and Antoine Russbach’s first feature, the highest-profile Swiss debut this year at the Swiss festival.
The two Swiss titles are for “no special reason,” said B For Films Pamela Lau, who set up the sales company with pan-European sales-financing-production company Playtime.
But Lau recognized that Be For Films has been approached by Swiss producers since the success of Lisa Brühlmann’s “Blue My Mind,”which sold 15 territories off a San Sebastian Festival world premiere last year.
Only about half B For Films’ titles are Belgian, and often minority co-productions. Reteaming Lesage with producer...
The two Swiss titles are for “no special reason,” said B For Films Pamela Lau, who set up the sales company with pan-European sales-financing-production company Playtime.
But Lau recognized that Be For Films has been approached by Swiss producers since the success of Lisa Brühlmann’s “Blue My Mind,”which sold 15 territories off a San Sebastian Festival world premiere last year.
Only about half B For Films’ titles are Belgian, and often minority co-productions. Reteaming Lesage with producer...
- 7/18/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – With a delicacy and melancholy reminiscent of the Dardennes brothers, Ursula Meier’s “Sister,” shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and opening tomorrow in Chicago at the Music Box Theatre, is a heartbreakingly effective piece of work about a boy forced to be a man by his circumstance. The film is sometimes a bit too languid for its own good but strong cinematography, excellent performances, and a deft touch with how adulthood can be forced upon what should be carefree adolescence make it emotionally memorable without ever feeling manipulative.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) is not an average twelve-year-old. He lives at the base of a mountain upon which rests an Alpine ski resort well-trafficked by the wealthy. Seemingly every day, Simon goes to the resort and raids it for equipment – boots, skis, masks, etc. – that he then resells to pay for food for himself and...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) is not an average twelve-year-old. He lives at the base of a mountain upon which rests an Alpine ski resort well-trafficked by the wealthy. Seemingly every day, Simon goes to the resort and raids it for equipment – boots, skis, masks, etc. – that he then resells to pay for food for himself and...
- 1/3/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Sister
Directed by Ursula Meier
Written by Antoine Jaccoud and Ursula Meier
Switzerland, 2012
If acting is difficult for adults, the task may be roughest and most challenging for children. Some children have a naturally showy personality, an overly precocious sensibility that is, depending on your attitude, immensely endearing or obnoxious. But capturing what it’s actually like to be a kid mired in consistent desperation without feeling crass can be nearly impossible. In the new Swiss film Sister, co-writer and director Ursula Meier lucked out in casting Kacey Mottet Klein as the fierce, intelligent, but lost lead of a story about being at the end of one’s rope and trying to pretend otherwise.
Klein is Simon, the 12-year old brother of Louise (Léa Seydoux, most recognizable to American audiences for her work in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol); they live together in a small apartment near a fancy Swiss ski resort,...
Directed by Ursula Meier
Written by Antoine Jaccoud and Ursula Meier
Switzerland, 2012
If acting is difficult for adults, the task may be roughest and most challenging for children. Some children have a naturally showy personality, an overly precocious sensibility that is, depending on your attitude, immensely endearing or obnoxious. But capturing what it’s actually like to be a kid mired in consistent desperation without feeling crass can be nearly impossible. In the new Swiss film Sister, co-writer and director Ursula Meier lucked out in casting Kacey Mottet Klein as the fierce, intelligent, but lost lead of a story about being at the end of one’s rope and trying to pretend otherwise.
Klein is Simon, the 12-year old brother of Louise (Léa Seydoux, most recognizable to American audiences for her work in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol); they live together in a small apartment near a fancy Swiss ski resort,...
- 12/7/2012
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
L’enfant d’en haut
Directed by Ursula Meier
Written by Antoine Jaccoud & Ursula Meier
Starring Kacey Mottet Klien, Lea Seydoux, Gillian Anderson
Channeling the social anxieties of the Dardenne Brothers with a nod to the political posturing of ultra-realist Ken Loach, Ursula Meier’s second feature is a distanced, distracting fable on the modern family structure. Like her 2008 debut Home the simply titled Sister is another puzzling tale which is bruisingly ascetic in tone, an emotional neutered piece which slowly builds an arresting snapshot of lives in a codified and fragmented, unsecured and uncertain free-fall.
The impish twelve year old Simon (Klien) lives with his sister in a decrepit council block at the foot of a popular ski resort in the Swiss alps. With no adult parents in sight and bereft of cash Simon spends his days as a mirror of some modern day Dickensian figure of Alpine descent,...
Directed by Ursula Meier
Written by Antoine Jaccoud & Ursula Meier
Starring Kacey Mottet Klien, Lea Seydoux, Gillian Anderson
Channeling the social anxieties of the Dardenne Brothers with a nod to the political posturing of ultra-realist Ken Loach, Ursula Meier’s second feature is a distanced, distracting fable on the modern family structure. Like her 2008 debut Home the simply titled Sister is another puzzling tale which is bruisingly ascetic in tone, an emotional neutered piece which slowly builds an arresting snapshot of lives in a codified and fragmented, unsecured and uncertain free-fall.
The impish twelve year old Simon (Klien) lives with his sister in a decrepit council block at the foot of a popular ski resort in the Swiss alps. With no adult parents in sight and bereft of cash Simon spends his days as a mirror of some modern day Dickensian figure of Alpine descent,...
- 10/4/2012
- by John
- SoundOnSight
Title: Sister (L’enfant d’en haut) Adopt Films Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten Grade: B+ Director: Ursula Meier Screenwriter: Antoine Jaccoud, Ursula Meier w/ Gilles Taurand’s collaboration Cast: Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Martin Compston, Gillian Anderson, Jean-François Stévenin Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/24/12 Opens: October 5, 2012 Switzerland may have been able to avoid wars on its soil for over four hundred years in part because it remains non-aligned, but director Ursula Meier, using a script developed with Antoine Jaccoud, is anything but neutral. She believes that kids who steal for food and rent for themselves and their families are different from those who steal to buy X-Box [ Read More ]...
- 9/25/2012
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
A young child is dressing in a bathroom stall. We can’t tell what he looks like, as he layers on shapeless winter clothing, and a neoprene mask hides all discernible features save for a pair of bright, knowing eyes. He goes through the pre-ski ritual, bundling up before braving the windy, snowy landscape of the mountain ahead. Except that this child isn’t dressing for a day of skiing, but rather a day of stealing. It isn’t until he lifts a backpack and a jacket, returning to the stall to sort through his loot, that his babyish face and soft, dirty blonde hair are revealed. This is the opening scene of “Sister,” the sophomore feature from Swiss director and co-writer Ursula Meier. The film, which won a Special Mention Silver Bear award at this year's Berlin Film Festival, examines the coming of age process, and the challenges that...
- 6/20/2012
- by Emma Bernstein
- The Playlist
Adopt Films has announced its acquisition of all U.S. rights to Ursula Meier’s ”Sister,” which world premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this week to warm notices. "Evoking a lost childhood with bittersweet intent, 'Sister' bears the mark of a filmmaker with supreme control over her material," Eric Kohn wrote in his review from the festival. “Sister” stars Léa Seydoux and Kacey Mottet Klein as siblings struggling for survival amid the high-end ski resorts of the Swiss Alps. It was written was directed by Meier who co-wrote the original screenplay with Antoine Jaccoud. “Few directors can effectively and effortlessly tell such an intimate story on such a vast and epic visual canvas," Adopt's Jeff Lipsky said of the film. "With ‘Sister’ Ursula Meier has achieved that in spades. This is a film that sends chills down your spine. Anyone who...
- 2/16/2012
- Indiewire
Adopt Films has acquired U.S. rights to Sister (L´enfant d´en haut), the Ursula Meier-directed film that had its world premiere in the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival. Adopt plans a late 2012 theatrical release. Sister stars Léa Seydoux and Kacey Mottet Klein. They play siblings struggling for survival amid the high-end ski resorts of the Swiss Alps, she working odd jobs, he excelling in not-so-petty acts of larceny, both of them walking a razor’s edge, their lives often as dangerously thrilling as those skiers from whom they steal. Seydoux played roles in Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris and Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and starred in the Berlin Competition opener Farewell, My Queen. Meier co-wrote the original screenplay with Antoine Jaccoud. Gillian Anderson plays a victim of the brother and sister’s thievery, in more ways than one. Denis Freyd and Ruth Waldburger are the producers.
- 2/16/2012
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Year: 2008
Directors: Ursula Meier
Writers: Ursula Meier & Antoine Jaccoud & Olivier Lorelle & Gilles Taurand & Raphaëlle Valbrune & Alice Winocour
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
What started out as a tale of a loving and happy family, so close they took naked baths together, turns into an ordeal, a struggle to hold onto a cherished way of life. Living on the side of an unused freeway, the family has ripped of the guardrails and enjoys free reign there, surrounded by the country. They play hockey in the middle of the road and traverse it to get to and from work and school. This has gone on for 10 years until, with little notice, the freeway is opened for use immediately destroying their way of life. One comment I saw compared this to a metaphor about Big Brother intervening in our lives, but I think it had more to do with our dislike of change.
Directors: Ursula Meier
Writers: Ursula Meier & Antoine Jaccoud & Olivier Lorelle & Gilles Taurand & Raphaëlle Valbrune & Alice Winocour
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
What started out as a tale of a loving and happy family, so close they took naked baths together, turns into an ordeal, a struggle to hold onto a cherished way of life. Living on the side of an unused freeway, the family has ripped of the guardrails and enjoys free reign there, surrounded by the country. They play hockey in the middle of the road and traverse it to get to and from work and school. This has gone on for 10 years until, with little notice, the freeway is opened for use immediately destroying their way of life. One comment I saw compared this to a metaphor about Big Brother intervening in our lives, but I think it had more to do with our dislike of change.
- 6/15/2009
- QuietEarth.us
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