The Landscape and the Fury

Nicole Vögele / Switzerland / 2024 / Czech Premiere / 138 min.

synopsis

The Bosnian town of Velika Kladuša is located near the Croatian border. Its inhabitants often come into contact with refugees from the Middle East and other even more distant places. Day and night, the camera observes the local forests and streets, capturing unbiasedly the clearing of civil war-era explosives, school lessons and collective efforts to face the consequences of the current conflicts. The layered soundtrack and the deliberate rhythm of the narrative, subordinate to the changing seasons, contribute to a slowly absorbing atmosphere of a place where past and present traumas collide alongside different cultures.

“With my stubborn approach as a filmmaker, I wanted to grapple with this spot on earth, this spot of World Soul. Perhaps I‘d call it an attempt to ‘capture a floating truth’.” — Nicole Vögele

Quote source: European Film Academy

biography

Swiss director Nicole Vögele (1983) studied journalism in Lucerne and documentary film at the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. Her short film Mrs Loosli (2013) was awarded at the Visions du Réel festival. Fog (2014) premiered at the Berlinale. She screened her feature debut Closing Time (2018) at Locarno.