Xavier Koller criticises conventional Swiss filmmaking

Oscar-winning director Xavier Koller has criticised recent Swiss films as conventional and lacking courage in an interview with SRF at the Locarno Film Festival.

“If I look at Swiss films from the past few years, I am rather disappointed,” Koller said on the Piazza Grande. “They are conventionally made.” He also criticised the dialogue and said there were too few people in German-speaking Switzerland who could write good dialogue.

Koller said Swiss filmmakers needed “courage” to develop new perspectives and surprising stories that kept audiences curious. Films should be told from a bold position that could provoke audiences, he said.

He said he missed the enjoyment of storytelling in Swiss feature films, while praising Swiss documentaries for finding new ways to tell stories. He said documentaries showed “a certain irony and wit” and a clear pleasure in storytelling.

Koller also said cinema appeared to be recovering after the Covid pandemic, when audiences had become accustomed to streaming. The success of “Spider-Man”, which earned 900 million dollars worldwide in its opening weekend, showed that people wanted to share experiences again, he said.

Koller won the Oscar for best foreign-language film in 1991 for his drama “Journey of Hope”. He said the award opened doors for him in the United States, although he had made the film because its subject had moved him, not to win an Oscar.

He said he hoped his next film would still be made. The Oscar statuette, meanwhile, is packed away in a box in storage in Italy, although Koller said he did not know exactly where.

The interview was conducted by Dani Fohrler for SRF 1’s “Treffpunkt” programme.