THE SPARROW IN THE CHIMNEY
As a follow-up to the multiple award-winning festival hits THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT and THE GIRL AND THE SPIDER, the Swiss twin brothers Ramon and Silvan Zürcher, in their third film - which comes as the final instalment of the "animal trilogy" - once again tell of human coexistence in a very unique way. At times staggeringly forceful, at others poetically sensitive and humorous and with a brilliant cast, THE SPARROW IN THE CHIMNEY plunges into the abysmal cosmos of a family and between hidden desires and secrets, sets alight a fire, blazing and renewing.
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Karen lives with her husband Markus and their children in her idyllic childhood home. Karen’s sister Jule and her family are visiting for Markus’ birthday. The two women could not be more different. Grim reminders of their deceased mother incite Jule’s rebellion against her domineering sister. As the house gradually fills with life and a sparrow in the chimney seeks a way out to freedom, Karen becomes increasingly tense – until it all comes to a head and the old is destroyed to make room for the new.
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Locarno Film Festival 2024 - Concorso Internazionale
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Gloria Zerbinati
gloria.zerbinati@gmail.com -
Director Ramon Zürcher (The Girl and the Spider) Screenwriter Ramon Zürcher Cast Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein, Luise Heyer, Andreas Döhler, Milian Zerzawy, Lea Zoe Voss, Paula Schindler, Ilja Bultmann, Luana Greco Editor Ramon Zürcher Director of Photography Alex Hasskerl bvk Producer Silvan Zürcher Production Designer Peter Scherz Sound Designer Peter von Siebenthal, Ramon Zürcher Music Balz Bachmann Costumes Linda Harper Year 2024 Category Fiction Language German Run time tbc Original title Der Spatz im Kamin Country of production Switzerland Production company Zürcher Film Co-Production companies SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen / SRG SSR
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In this film, I want to explore the fairy-tale-like transformation of a family's dynamics, condensed over two days. It is the story of an unconventional emancipation, where a woman, Karen, sheds herself of the burden of her past. A burden that like an invisible ulcer has burrowed its way deeper and deeper into the old walls of the house, digging itself into the bodies of the family, hovering above it all for years like a tyrannical demon.
Karen's transformation triggers a dreamy ballet of role- playing and frictions. A space of fluid identities takes shape, in which family and social conventions and the possibility of freedom within a middle-class lifestyle are subversively scrutinised. All this provides the ingredients for a bittersweet, dark family drama - a film, in which moments of hurt happen just as quickly as moments of affection and intimacy.
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“More heated than their first two features, this darkly engrossing psychodrama of pent-up domestic tensions should be an arthouse breakthrough for Switzerland's gifted Zürcher brothers.”
“there’s a mutually enhancing tension between the rough-and-tumble of the drama and the refinement of the filmmaking.”
“This increased dramatic heft could earn this Locarno competition entry the broader arthouse exposure”
“Here Zurcher fully turns up the heat so there’s no question of whether something will boil over, but a case of what, when and by how much.”
“While the writer/director maintains the strong sense of everyday relationships and realism from his previous films, his more ambitious approach pays off to deliver an emotionally volatile portrait of a family in flux, complete with ambiguous motives and unexpected transformations.”
“The Sparrow in the Chimney should follow suit after its premiere in Locarno, with its inclination towards horror elements, albeit brief, likely to ensure even more interest.”
“Ramon Zürcher’s utterly distinctive talent for twisting the domestic into the uncanny gains intensity in a cutting psychological horror as thrilling as it is elliptical and dark.”
“German actress Maren Eggert, who also starred in Angela Schanelec’s 2019 festival darling I Was at Home, But, is enigmatic and mesmerising to watch as Karen”
“This house is superb, nestled in fairytale-like woods. The light is wonderful, summery… But there’s quickly something off in this idyllic picture.”
“‘The Sparrow in the Chimney’ paints a family portrait that is both brilliant and unruly, where chaos is desired, dreamt of, and in some way, realized.”
“5 Must-See Films at This Year’s Festival”
“This year, there is only one wholly Swiss film in the international competition for the Golden Leopard and it’s a doozy.”
“As in their debut, Ramon Zürcher takes over as director with Silvan producing a similar scenario which feels incredibly intensified by comparison, this time led by one of Germany’s most accomplished contemporary actors, Maren Eggert.”
“This transformation is aided exquisitely by an electro synth soundtrack with several tracks from musical artist Frankumjay. A dream of a fiery inferno turns out to be a prescient harbinger to come. And yet, there’s a great relief in what proves to be a relinquishment of the past, a reconciliation through destruction, and the possibility of rebirth.”
ION CINEMA (★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆)
“Incredibly original, and directed with great pathos, The Sparrow in the Chimney is bolstered by inventive use of effects (…) The Sparrow in the Chimney is a work of tremendous beauty and fragility.”
“Zürcher’s blocking is precise and continually inventive, seeking to disrupt the established boundaries between different characters in order to complicate their behavior and interactions with each other. “
“Pieced together, these narrative elements form the foundation for a truly exceptional but profoundly disconcerting family drama.”
“Maren Eggert and Britta Hammelstein deliver spellbinding performances playing polar opposites”
ICS (International Cinephile Society)
“The Zürcher Brothers Bring Their Trilogy to an Enigmatic, Exhilarating Close in Frosty Family Drama”
“With metaphysical turns, ‘The Sparrow in the Chimney’ is an exquisitely controlled drama whose formal rigor belies sorrow, mystery, and hope.”
“the Zurcher brothers, more polished and impactful than ever, especially visually, make this “ The Sparrow In The Chimney ” a descent into the hell of a family with a lot to talk about and even more to resolve. Words never before said, vibrant sexual tensions, psychotic rebellions and secrets to be revealed boil a film in deep crescendo.”
“A welcome return for Ramon and Silvan Zurcher , and one of the best films in the International Competition at the Locarno Film Festival.”
“The amount of destruction it takes to break a family dynamic is as colossal as the amount it takes to change social behavior. But when it is done through destruction, it is different, because destruction is much easier, much faster, and much more definitive than building. And this film affirms this, while inviting us to spend a weekend with the family.”
“The Sparrow in the Chimney begins with certain subtleties and climates typical of Lucrecia Martel's La ciénaga , mutating into something closer to Thomas Vinterberg's La celebrazione , and then drifting towards (and embracing) the cinema of guilt, misanthropy and cruelty of Ulrich Seidl and Michael Haneke’s.”
“It must be said without mincing words that the staging (with that almost choreographic sense that is the Zürcher seal) is prodigious and the acting is of an intensity that is sometimes shocking.”
“This builds a tense, mysterious atmosphere such that bizarre questions and insults — Why did Karen and Jule’s father kill himself? Why did Karen call Johanna “disabled?” — linger, only for the film to deliver an emotional barrage of revelations in the fiery third act.”
“It’s hard to imagine a better ending to the Zürchers’ trilogy, as they’ve realized a credo that more commercial filmmakers have always known: subtlety is no match for an explosion.”
“The Sparrow in the Chimney ( Der Spatz im Kamin ) closes, in fact, an ideal trilogy on the complicated dynamics of the human consortium, especially if consumed within a limited place”
“Ramon Zürcher offers us his own solution in this new interesting film, suggesting the utopian vision of a sparrow (a symbol of both fragility and rebirth) that manages to escape from a chimney and has been freely flying in the sky ever since.”
“Maren Eggert gives a captivating turn as a woman who fears she’s become her mother in Ramon Zürcher’s inspired take on a haunted house film.”
“Filled with a sense of dread that won’t be uncommon to some in how they approach their own family reunions, “The Sparrow in the Chimney” offers the same sense of relief when it’s all over, not only because of the wrenching drama it depicts, but the fresh air of its singular storytelling.”
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