Fajr festival picks six Swiss films for Classic Preserved review

TEHRAN – (Iranart)- Six films from renowned Swiss filmmakers are being reviewed in the Classics Preserved section of the 38th Fajr International Film Festival, which is currently underway in Tehran.

The movies have been restored by the Swiss Film Archive, the organizers have announced.

Director Jacques Feyder’s 1925 silent film “Faces of Children” is a highlight of the lineup.

It tells the story of a young boy whose mother has died and the resentments that develop when his father remarries. It was a notable example of film realism in the silent era, and its psychological drama was integrated with the natural landscapes of Switzerland where much of the film was made on location.

“My Persia Flight”, a documentary by the Swiss aviation pioneer, Walter Mittelholzer, about his flight from Zurich to Tehran in 1924 will also be screened in this section.

The lineup also included director Alain Tanner’s 1969 drama “Charles, Dead or Alive”. This film is about a man who is dissatisfied with his position in life, assumes a fake name, leaves home and begins traveling aimlessly with a couple he meets.

“The Madman”, director Claude Goretta’s drama, will also be reviewed. The 1970 French-language film follows George, a man who takes care of his invalid wife and holds down a full-time job. When an investment firm wipes out his life savings, the middle-aged George is soon forced into retirement for health reasons. George takes up a life of crime when the company turns his back on him and the money is gone overnight. He is soon driven to the brink of insanity over the unfortunate series of events that transpire.

Michel Soutter’s “The Surveyors” has also been selected to be screened. In this 1972 drama, a lazy surveyor is thwarted by two women whose houses he is surveying for destruction to make way for a park. In another realm of the story, a man is given a hat by another man, who asks him to give it to his fiancée as a gift. However, he mistakenly gives the gift to another girl entirely, and makes love to her.

Also included is “The Big Night”, director Francis Reusser’s 1976 drama. It is about Leon who gets involved with a small Leninist group where he meets Lea, the group leader’s mistress and a dedicated activist. But everything goes downhill once the police begin to watch their every move.

The organizers of the 38th Fajr International Film Festival previously said that the Renowned Russian filmmaker Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky’s debut film “Ivan’s Childhood” would be screened in the Classics Preserved section of the event, which will come to an end on Wednesday.

source: Tehran Times