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Motti and his beloved Laura (image: Turnus Film)
the last 30 years. Thus, it was Hans Syz’s decision to make High German and Yiddish the languages spoken by the characters. He also insisted on subtitles, to make the film accessible to a wider audience.
a holistic work of cinematic art out of many hours of raw material is one of the most challenging tasks in film- making. “The final cuts are always the toughest”, says Hans Syz, “as they force you to discard scenes that you really like”. Prior to the final test screen- ing, “Wolkenbruch” was still 105 min- utes long – too long. With 92 min- utes considered the ideal length of a mainstream film, a further 13 minutes
Following its world pre- miere at the Zurich Film Festival in September 2018, “Wolkenbruch” – which was directed by Michael Steiner – went on general release in Switzerland on 25 October 2018. It was released internationally at the start of 2019. For further information,
see wolkenbruch-film.ch
Having trained as a cameraman many years ago (see interview on page 5), Hans Syz was a regular presence on set during the shooting of the film. “The two critical factors here are total concentration and rig-
orous organization”,
he says, “otherwise
the production goes
off the rails”. Shoot-
ing costs a lot of
money, so in order to
keep costs under control, each day’s filming was scheduled for an early start and a late finish. No less than 35 days’ filming was required in Zurich and Tel Aviv, with the deployment of the crew – some 100 people at peak times – having to be planned and coordin- ated right down to the last detail.
No less important than the shoot- ing of a film is the editing: Creating
had to be cut, which provoked plenty of debate among the team. But then “Wolken- bruch” proved such a hit at the
box office that the production costs of CHF 3.8 million were soon recouped. The film has attracted more than 200,000 Swiss moviegoers to date, making “Wolkenbruch” one of the most successful Swiss feature film produc- tions. Indeed, the film is now also being shown abroad, so Motti Wolken- bruch can now touch the hearts of film enthusiasts the world over.
4
“No one goes to the cinema to watch normality”