In 2020, Switzerlandâs SRG SSR invested nearly â¬30 million in the production of national films
31/05/2021 - By signing the
Pacte de l audiovisuel, the TV channel conglomerate has committed to promoting independent Swiss films that would otherwise not be financed through the countryâs relatively small market
Eden für Jeden by Rolf Lyssy, which was one of the most successful productions completed with funding from the
Pacte de l audiovisuel in 2020
Since 1996, the SRG SSR TV channel conglomerate has had a pact in place with the most important film funding institutions in Switzerland, according to which it agrees to offer special support to the Swiss film industry. Aside from the Federal Office of Culture, SRG SSR has the greatest clout in terms of promoting domestic productions. The
Sonia Nimr,
Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands. Trans. Marcia Lynx Qualey. Interlink Books, 2020. $15.00 (paperback)
We do not allow our characters rest. They are called upon to entertain us by darting to and fro, falling in love, living out our political agendas and often leading impossible lives we will never live. But I like that Sonia Nimr’s Qamar, the protagonist of Nimr’s
Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, rests while she’s reading, in full view of us readers. Qamar is a bibliophile, and when exhausted by the adventurous demands of her life, be it piracy or racing across continents looking for someone lost, she turns to books for a breath of fresh air, reading for days on end. At one point, she even opens her own bookshop, something of a family legacy. After everything she’s been through, I like seeing her stop to rest with something she’s not had the time for. Something that she loves.