The first trailer for Ramon Zurcher's The Bird in the Chimney, which depicts a troubled family, has been released ahead of its premiere in the Locarno Film Festival's international competition.
“The Sparrow in the Chimney” was produced by his twin brother Silvan Zürcher for Zürcher Film, and is co-produced by SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen / SRG SSR, while Cercamon handles sales.
In the film, Maren Eggert, Britta Hummelstein, Louise Heyer, Andreas Dohler and Milian Zerzaoui play members of a family preparing for a birthday party and getting more than just a generous share of the cake once old traumas start to surface.
Karen, played by Eggert, best known for the sci-fi romance “I'm Your Man,” lives with her husband Marcus and their children in her childhood home. Her sister Jules and her family visit, but the lingering memories of her deceased mother are too much to shake.
“I think these kinds of relationships and psychological abysses are my main interest. I have an interest in darkness and the family is the perfect place for that,” said Ramon Zurcher. diverse.
“I'm not afraid to create characters who aren't 'nice,' but to me, Karen isn't just a 'bad mom.' She's also a struggling, sensitive mom. There are a lot of things I understand about her.”
Zurcher admitted that he wanted to go a step further than he did in his previous film, “The Strange Little Cat.”
“In that movie, the conflicts were very passive-aggressive and not very clear. Now, I wanted to show it in a more direct way. These people say these terrible things to each other, and they can be very bad, and yes, you have to laugh a little bit. Not because it's funny, but because it's exaggerated. Sometimes, humor and sadness are like siblings. They affect each other.”
In his musical experiment – by Balz Bachmann – Zürcher decided to bet on contrasts, ranging from classical melodies to electronic madness.
“Contrasts are always interesting. The first time I saw Mulholland Drive, there was a certain story being built and then everything changed. I was fascinated. Now, I’m showing a beautiful house and a perfect summer day, but inside, it’s very dark. I like to combine different things, hoping to create something new,” he recalls.
“Connecting with people is important. I don’t want to just make things for myself, but I also don’t want to change who I am. Almost everyone has a family, and I hope it will help them connect. It will allow me to experiment a little bit without losing them.”
As this family's day became more bizarre, and fact and fiction became more intertwined, Zurcher turned to the literary genre for inspiration.
“One of the sisters says, ‘You’re a monster,’ and the other says, ‘No, the monster is you.’ The horror genre is something I love, and this was a haunted house story. It takes place mostly inside the house, where the past and the present coexist.”
Or where Karen's mother's strict presence is still very much felt.
“It’s everywhere. It’s part of Karen, it’s in the stories she tells and in all these situations. However, it’s not a “screaming” horror film, although I do like the expressive images of the Italian city. Giallo,” He said.
“Horror often takes certain psychological conditions and translates them into exaggerated situations, where there are monsters and things that need to be destroyed. Now, Karen has to undergo an exorcism as well. She has to get rid of the ‘demon’ of the past, hidden desires that can’t be lived. I see it as a story about liberation.”
And about a family that can be reborn despite all the difficulties.
“Karen sheds her old skin, and rises from the ashes like a phoenix. Suddenly, she returns to a blank page, without that heavy cloud that constantly looms over the horizon. From then on, anything becomes possible,” Zürcher noted.
“We have to remember that traumas don’t just stay in the past. We interact with them, we live with them, and we learn to make them invisible. But we shouldn’t just hide things, we should talk about them instead. That way you free yourself.”
The bird in the chimney
Copyright: Alex Haskerl
