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Archive | 4. SFFF | 2017

Statements



Gabriel Zurbriggen

Being an actor myself I’m looking forward to presenting the high quality of acting in these movies.

Everything is in flow and is changing, also at our festival. There are new names among our sponsors but also in our team. I’m going to leave the festival team to focus more on my own acting again. I hope you will continue to support the festival and my festival partner Stefan Fichtner in all respects and continue to participate in the event. You are very welcome to – in whatever way - support the Saas-Fee Filmfest!

We are happy to have kicked off a new programm section this year which is dedicated to the diverse film-making in our host canton: SPOTLIGHT WALLIS .

This year we’ll celebrate the 60th anniversary of cinema Rex and explore its stories. With our partner Egon Lehner the cinema has found a new owner. New concepts for the Rex are in the air. They can bring a plus and a wider profile to Saas-Fee. It’s my desire to promote spiritual-intellectual life in Saas-Fee. We should remember people like Carl Zuckmayer having lived here, pioneering institutions like European Graduate School and be open for new ways of thinking.

And action! THANK YOU …



Stefan Fichtner 

A lot has been written about the nature of suspense in film. Its most popular forms which are linked to the name Hitchcock have to do with information not being available to the spectator or on the contrary with the spectator’s surplus of information over the film’s characters. 

The movie we selected as the first one for this year’s competition, gives the opportunity to describe a different form of suspense which doesn’t take place on the plain of the plot but rather on all levels of the cinematic reality.

In said film there is nothing superfluous, no slags, no sensationalism, no emotion-jerking. Within a short time the spectator gains the certainty that this is the work of a filmmaker who knows exactly what he’s doing, and this makes it possible to confide in the film. Thus suspense is woven through every moment, from sentence to sentence, from gaze to gaze, from shot to shot, as if one was witnessing a piece of reality unfolding.

Few films succeed in creating this form of suspense, which makes it an even greater adventure to search for these treasures. On that note, I wish you an SFFF-edition with a many of these cinematic experiences! ​And - action ...