HOW SWISS IS IT? Cyril Schäublin, who joins the Zürcher brothers as one of the leading auteurs of the first major wave of Helvetian filmmaking since the heyday of Alain Tanner and Daniel Schmid half a century ago, appears determined in his first two features to demolish the myth of Swiss probity, especially in the echt Schweizer realms of finance and industry. Schäublin made his brilliant debut with the ironically titled Those Who Are Fine (2017), about a young worker at a Zurich call center hawking internet services to vulnerable seniors the provider’s portentous name is Everywhere
Tick-tock: the Swiss director discusses his anti-nostalgic approach to historical narrative, summoning an everyday sense of the past, and the central place of objects in his film, Unrest
AFTER SUNDANCE CALLED OFF its physical edition just two weeks before opening, it was a comfort and a joy that the Berlinale had the good fortune to take place on a streamlined schedule. When the festival’s Golden Bear went to Carla Simón’s Alcarràs a handsome, serviceable portrayal of a Catalonian farm’s fade-out I couldn’t help but sense a “just happy to be here” feeling in the air. The Competition jury’s lineup which put M. Night Shyamalan and Ryusuke Hamaguchi in the same room was arguably more exciting than the stubbornly even-keeled Alcarras. But good films at the 2022 edition were where