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The Sparrow in the Chimney Der Spatz im Kamin

Ramon Zürcher / Switzerland / 2024 / 117 min / German

Using the universal image of a pair of siblings in combat with each other, the film paints a haunting, fairy-tale portrait of a family and their unconventional dynamic.

cast Maren Eggert (Karen), Britta Hammelstein (Jule), Luise Heyer (Liv), Andreas Döhler (Markus), Lea Zoë Voss (Johanna), Milian Zerzawy (Jurek), Ilja Bultmann (Leon), Paula Schindler (Christina), Luana Greco (Edda)

festivals, awards Locarno 2024

IMDb

Karen and Markus live with their children in Karen's idyllic childhood home. Karen's sister Jule and her family arrive to celebrate Markus's birthday. Sombre memories of their deceased mother, the past grievances and pent-up frustration trigger Jule's urge to rebel against her sister's dominance. As the house starts filling with life, Karen tenses up. Must some past things be cancelled out and destroyed in order to create something new?

“I endeavor to portray, in a fairytale-style and a two-day condensation, the changing relations of a family, suggesting the utopian vision of a sparrow managing to escape from a chimney and flitting freely across the sky ever after. / … / I would say the film, like the previous too, is very personal, which concretely means that every character is close to me, or in a way, I understand them, even when they behave in a mean way. But the events that take place throughout the movie, or their actions, are not out of my “personal videography” – that’s all invented.” (Ramon Zürcher)

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