The 21st edition of FIFDH will take place from 10 to 19 March 2023 and has unveiled a programme that delves into the burning issues in the local and international news, and invites audiences to take a closer look at their political, ethical and symbolic stakes.
For this 21st edition, the FIFDH presents films with a special focus on international filmmakers, politically engaged writers and activists from around the world. Among the two hundred or so guests present, Lebanese director and visual artist Ali Cherri (Le barrage), Canadian-Somali activist and Right Livelihood Award laureate, Ilwad Elman, Kurdish singer and women’s rights activist Mutlu Kaya (My Name is Happy), Afghan journalist and documentary filmmaker Abbas Rezaie (Etilaat Roz), French investigative journalist and author Garance Le Caisne (Les Âmes perdues), French-Congolese director Alain Kassanda (Colette et Justin), Kenyan producer and 2020 voting member of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Toni Kamau, French documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert (Sur L’Adamant), feminist journalist and podcast creator Victoire Tuaillon (Les Couilles sur la table) and Swiss photographer Christian Lutz (Citizens).
Swiss cinema will also have a prominent place at FIFDH. Carmen Jacquier will present her film Foudre. Simon David will take us to the zone à défendre located on the colline du Mormont with his film Zadvengers. Gabriel Tejedor will present the world premiere of his documentary Naître Svetlana Staline on the exceptional fate of Joseph Stalin’s only daughter. Director Fisnik Maxville’s The Land Within is a spellbinding fiction film that reopens the wounds of the conflict in Kosovo.
For the first time, the FIFDH is going to meet the youngest members of the audience and accompany them in the discovery of themes that are sometimes difficult to address. The animated film Dounia et la princesse d’Alep by Marya Zarif and André Kadi tells the story of the exile of a six-year-old girl and her family. The theme of child labour is tackled in Iqbal – L’enfant qui n’avait pas peur by Michel Fuzellier et Babak Payami as part of a programme set up by the Lanterne Magique. Finally, the animated film Interdit aux chiens et aux Italiens by Alain Ughetto, which won the Jury Prize at the Annecy Festival3, tells the story of thousands of Italians who left their homeland to settle in France, Switzerland and Belgium at the beginning of the 20th century.
Find more information on the complete programmes, including through centrepiece sections on Universal issues: incest, right of trans* children, femicides, Reflections on decolonisation, and Technology and human rights – HERE
