Silvan Zürcher
Directing
Biography
Silvan Zürcher (1982 in Aarberg, Switzerland) studied Philosophy, Film Studies and German at the Universities of Bern and Zurich from 2002 to 2008. Along the way he worked as a projectionist in an art house cinema in Bern. From 2009 to 2014 he studied film production at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). During his studies he produced short and medium-length films. In addition, he worked as an assistant director and developed his own material for feature films. His first feature film DAS MERKWÜRDIGE KÄTZCHEN premiered in 2013 at the Forum of the Berlinale and was subsequently celebrated at numerous international festivals and won many awards. In 2017, he founded the production company Zürcher Film together with his brother Ramon Zürcher, with whom they co-produced their second feature film DAS MÄDCHEN UND DIE SPINNE. The film had its world premiere in the Encounters international competition at the Berlinale in 2021 and won the Best Director Award and the FIPRESCI Prize.
Known For
Lisa is moving. Upheaval all around: Her mother flirts with a handyman. An eccentric woman seems to be preparing for a glamorous event, a family next door returns from vacation, and a girl documents the adventurous day. As boxes are transported, walls painted white, and furniture is assembled, underlying problems in need of fixing are revealed, a to-do list expands, and desires and needs flair up.
The Girl and the Spider
Karen and Markus live with their children in Karen’s parents’ house. Karen’s sister Jule travels with her family to Markus’ birthday party. While Karen takes everyone’s breath away with her domineering manner, Jule is the complete opposite. Gradually a front forms against Karen until everything escalates into a fiery inferno. An inferno that destroys the old to create the new.
The Sparrow in the Chimney
It is a Saturday in autumn, and Karin and Simon are visiting their parents and youngest sister Clara. This family gathering provides the occasion for a dinner together, at which other relatives appear over the course of the day. While the family members animate the apartment’s space with their conversations, everyday activities and cooking preparations, the cat and dog range through the various rooms. they too become a central element in this quotidian familial dance that repeatedly manifests stylized elements, disrupting any naturalistic mode of presentation. In this way, adjoining spaces open up between family drama, fairy tale and the psychological study of a mother.
The Strange Little Cat
17-year old Sarah, filled with adolescent angst, is an extreme person who in her rehearsals with a theatre group is transformed until she is almost in a trance, and her performances at home or elsewhere verge on excess. A cold, intellectual father, a timid mother, a younger sister and an older brother who has left home complete the picture: a silent time bomb.
Sarah Plays a Werewolf
May is raised by her grandparents in the German province. On a hot summer day May's interest in the Polish boy Piotr is sparked by boredom. May faces him provocatively, which leads on to a short moment of tenderness but ends in betrayal.
Teufel
A short drama shot on Super-16mm.
Zombie
A mirror is located in the elevator of a big subway station in Berlin. Passengers from all parts of the world enter and leave to change between the different platforms. In the mirror they are facing themselves.
Portrait
script under wraps.