The Swiss director, screenwriter, Fredi M. Murer will be honored with the Pardo alla carriera at the 72 Locarno Film Festival. The tribute to the Swiss master will be accompanied by screenings of some of the landmark titles from his more than forty years of friendship with the Festival: Grauzone (1979), Wir Bergler in den Bergen sind eigentlich nicht schuld, dass wir da sind (1974), Höhenfeuer (1985) and Der grüne Berg(1990).
The Pardo alla carriera of the 72nd Locarno Film Festival will go to Fredi M. Murer, a key figure in Swiss and international independent filmmaking and also a free-spirited, visionary artist whose innovation and creativity have guided him throughout a career that stretches back over half a century and has left a deep mark on Swiss film history. Murer’s poetic vision has always reflected a political and civic engagement that allowed him to view the world – and Switzerland – through different eyes. That highly individual approach was discovered by the Locarno Film Festival in 1979 in his film Grauzone.
Grauzone will not however be the only restoration effort for Murer’s filmography at Locarno72. The Festival will also showcase another work that has recently regained its original light and brightness, Wir Bergler in den Bergen sind eigentlich nicht schuld, dass wir da sind (1974). This was one of Murer’s most important films, honored with the FIPRESCI Award in Locarno in 1975, while its sequel, Der grüne Berg (1990), was presented by the director at the Festival during the first edition of the parallel section devoted to documentaries, the Semaine de la critique. This year the sidebar celebrates its own 30th anniversary and will be re-presenting Der grüne Berg at Locarno72 in its new-minted condition, adding a third restored print to the homage to Murer.
The celebrations for Murer’s career could not possibly omit one of the masterworks of his filmography, which also ranks high in the Locarno honors list: Höhenfeuer, the unforgettable film that won the Golden Leopard at the 1985 Locarno Film Festival, will complete the quartet of restored prints to be shown to the audience at Locarno72. Murer is an illustrator as well as a director, screenwriter and photographer, and the tribute will be rounded off by an exhibit of his original artworks.
Lili Hinstin, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival: “In addition to everything else the Locarno Film Festival is always a showcase for Swiss film of all periods, past, present and future. By representing his contemporaries, imagining the possibly dark future of his country and listening to the stories of those who live in its most remote corners, Fredi M. Murer played with time, that is, with his art and his era. In portraying Switzerland, Murer redrew the confines of Swiss cinema. I am delighted to honor one of the great Swiss directors during my first edition of the Festival. “
Fredi M. Murer will receive the Pardo alla carriera in Piazza Grande on the evening of August 15. On Friday August 16, Festival-goers can attend a panel discussion with the filmmaker in the Spazio Cinema.
Winners of Locarno’s Pardo alla carriera at previous Festivals include Francesco Rosi, Claude Goretta, Bruno Ganz, Claudia Cardinale, Johnnie To, Harry Belafonte, Peter-Christian Fueter, Sergio Castellitto, Victor Erice, Marlen Khutsiev, Bulle Ogier, Mario Adorf and Jane Birkin.
The 72nd Locarno Film Festival will take place from August 7 to 17, 2019.