Both very sly and very daring, Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s long-awaited follow-up to The Strange Little Cat (VIFF 2013) is largely set in a spacious bohemian apartment, as tenant Mara (Henriette Confurius) and various friends and family gather to help Mara’s longtime roommate, Lisa (Liliane Amuat), move out. But the story here takes a backseat to the mise-en-scène: this often-funny film choreographs the characters and camera movements with the precision of a ballet. It is a film about looks and the meaning behind them (one realizes quickly that almost all interactions between two characters are observed by a third, off-camera), about how people perceive themselves, and about how they are seen by others. There is a heightened stylization to the intensity of the characters’ interactions that gives the film a tangible erotic frisson and a hallucinatory quality — indeed, one critic wondered if all involved had been microdosing LSD during production — which translates into pure cinematic pleasure for the viewer.
Supported by
Henriette Confurius, Liliane Amuat, Ursina Lardi, Flurin Giger, André M. Hennicke, Ivan Georgiev
Switzerland
2021
In German with English subtitles
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Tuesday October 07
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Credits & Director
Producer
Aline Schmid, Adrian Blaser
Screenwriter
Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher
Cinematography
Alexander Haßkerl
Editor
Ramon Zürcher, Katharina Bhend
Production Design
Sabina Winkler, Mortimer Chen
Original Music
Philipp Moll
Ramon Zürcher
Born in 1982, Swiss screenwriter and director Ramon Zürcher studied visual arts at the Bern Academy of the Arts and film directing at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin. His debut feature, The Strange Little Cat premiered at Berlinale Forum in 2013 and was selected at over 80 festivals. In 2021, his second film, The Girl and the Spider, also premiered at Berlinale where it was awarded Best Director and the FIPRESCI prize in the Encounters section. The Sparrow in the Chimney is his third feature.
Filmography: The Strange Little Cat (2013); The Girl and the Spider (2021)
Photo by Iris Janke
Reflections
See more films in this series
The Strange Little Cat
This droll, perfectly executed comedy chronicles a day in the life of a multigenerational family prepping a celebratory dinner in their cramped Berlin apartment. Putting daily life’s absurdities on display, it's an exciting choreography of the quotidian.
The Girl and the Spider
Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s sly and daring film takes place in Mara and Lisa's spacious bohemian apartment as the latter moves out. Mise-en-scène, humour, and stylized character interactions take centre stage in this pure cinematic pleasure.
The Sparrow in the Chimney
Preparations are afoot for an extravagant celebration. But as the house fills up, tensions mount and it becomes a veritable pressure cooker of familial strife. Ramon Zürcher delivers precise formal play and acute psychological mystery.
Choreographed Chaos: Ramon and Silvan Zürcher on Domestic Surrealism and Cinematic Precision
Employing collaboration and a shared vision, Ramon and Silvan Zürcher create meticulously observed, drolly absurd dramas that transform domestic spaces into surreal landscapes.
Image: © Iris Janke