This year, our popular guest talks unfortunately cannot take place live after the screenings. To ensure that you can still enjoy illuminating background information on the films, we have conducted talks in advance and recorded them specially for you. You can access them online at any time.

Enjoy!

Yesh! Opening

June 2021

Culture moderator Monika Schärer talking to Yesh! director Michel Rappaport and ZFF director Christian Jungen

(in German)

Talk with Thor Klein and Lena Vurma

(Adventures of a Mathematician)

Moderation (in German):
Bettina Spoerri, cultural mediator

Thor Klein

Thor Klein, born in 1978, is a director and writer from Kaiserslautern who lives in Berlin. He studied at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). For Adventures of a Mathematician, his second film, he won several awards.

Lena Vurma

Lena Vurma, born in 1982, is both Swiss and Czech, and lives in Berlin. She graduated from the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). As the main producer of the German-British-Polish co-production Adventures of a Mathematician, Vurma won the VGF Young Producer Award in 2020. She is also Germany’s programme delegate at the Zurich Film Festival.

Talk with Shira Haas

(Asia)

(in English)

Shira Haas

Shira Haas was born in 1995 in Hod HaSharon, Israel. She obtained her first film role when discovered at the Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts in Tel Aviv. Haas achieved her international breakthrough thanks to the television series Shtisel and the Netflix miniseries Unorthodox. For the film Asia, she received the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Talk with Bárbara Paz

(Babenco)

Moderation (in German):
André Grieder, former head of schule&kultur, department of education, canton of Zurich

German translation:
Anabela Matos-Geyer

Bárbara Paz

Bárbara Paz, born in 1974, is a Brazilian actress, producer and film director who has enjoyed great success in Brazil, both in theatre and television. In 2019, she published her book Mr. Babenco. This was a great success, inspiring her to make the documentary Babenco – Tell Me When I Die, which won the Best Documentary award at the Venice International Film Festival.

Iris Berben

Iris Berben made her film debut in 1968 and has since won multiple awards. Her latest projects include the productions Altes Land and Das Unwort (The Un-Word), as well as the feature films Triangle of Sadness and Der Nachname. Alongside her acting work, Iris Berben has always considered it important to adopt a public stance, advocating tolerance and benevolence.

Leo Khasin

German director Leo Khasin was born in Moscow in 1973 and moved to Germany in 1981. He studied film in Berlin and Hamburg. His feature film Kaddish for a Friend earned him the German Film Award for Best Children’s Film in 2013

Talk with Anatol Schuster

(Frau Stern)

Moderation (in German):
Christian Jungen, artistic director of the Zurich Film Festival

Anatol Schuster

This German director was born in 1985 in Darmstadt. Schuster graduated from the University of Film and Television HFF in Munich, where he made numerous experimental short films. Ms Stern won the Best Feature Film and Best Actress awards at the film festival Achtung Berlin.

Talk with Maria Belkin, Vladimir Friedman and Evgeny Ruman 

(Golden Voices)

Moderation (in German):
Monika Schärer, culture moderator

German translation:
Antje Eiger

Maria Belkin

Maria Belkin was born in 1957 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, and worked there as a variety artist. In 1990, Belkin emigrated to Israel, where she became a theatre and TV actress. Her role as Raya in Golden Voices earned her a nomination for the Ophir Award for Best Actress.

Vladimir Friedman

Vladimir Friedman was born in 1959 in Russia. He graduated from the Academy of Arts and Theatre in Moscow and worked at the Russian National Theatre. In 1991, he emigrated to Israel, where he worked on numerous theatre, film and television productions. In 2006, he won the Israeli Theatre Academy’s Best Actor award.

Evgeny Ruman

Evgeny Ruman was born in 1979 in what was then the USSR and emigrated to Israel at the age of ten. He graduated from the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television in Tel Aviv and has received various awards from the Israeli Ministry of Culture for his contributions to Israeli film, as well as an award for immigrant artists.

Talk with Shai Avivi and Noam Imber

(Here We Are) 

Moderation and translation (in Hebrew, with English subtitles):
Elad Adelman, producer and film maker

Shai Avivi

Shai Avivi was born in 1964 in the city of Akko, Israel. This actor, comedian and TV presenter has appeared in various Israeli TV series and feature films. For his role as Aharon in Here We Are, Avivi won Israel’s Ophir Award for Best Actor in 2020, the Israeli equivalent of an Oscar.

Noam Imber

Israeli actor Noam Imber was born in 1998 in Israel and lives in Tel Aviv. In Israel, he is known for the film Beyond the Mountains and the Hills (2016), as well as the TV series Dismissed. Imber’s role as the autistic Uri in Here We Are earned him the Israeli Film Academy’s Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Talk with Moran Rosenblatt

(Kiss Me Kosher)

Moderation (in English):
Laszlo Schneider, film journalist

Moran Rosenblatt

Israeli actress Moran Rosenblatt was born in 1985 in Tel Aviv. After her military service, she completed her studies in acting and screenwriting. In addition to various feature films, Rosenblatt appeared in the Israeli Netflix series Fauda. She was nominated for an Ophir Award as Best Supporting Actress in 2018 for her role in Red Cow. 

Talk with Mauro Mancini

(Non Odiare – Thou Shalt Not Hate)

Moderation (in Italian):
Brigitta Rotach, House of Religions

English subtitles:
Michel Bodmer

Mauro Mancini

Multi-award-winning director and screenwriter Mauro Mancini was born in 1978 in the Italian village of Pontecorvo. Mancini began his film career in 2005 with the short film Our Secret. He has made advertisements, music videos and documentaries. His first feature film, Non Odiare – Thou Shalt Not Hate, was shown at the 77th Venice International Film Festival.

Talk with Václav Marhoul

(The Painted Bird)

Moderation (in English):
Selim Petersen, film journalist, SRF

Václav Marhoul

Czech director Václav Marhoul was born in 1960 in Prague. He studied at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. The Painted Bird was screened in the main competition at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival and was on the Oscars’ shortlist in 2020.

Talk with Barnabás Tóth

(Those Who Remained)

Moderation (in English):
Judith Jordáky, cultural mediator

Barnabás Tóth

Hungarian director Barnabás Tóth was born in 1977 in Strasbourg, France. Tóth studied at the Budapest Film Academy. His short film My Guide (2013) has been viewed over 1.5 million times on Vimeo. Those Who Remained is his second feature film and was on the Oscars’ shortlist in 2020.

Talk with Daniel Howald and Martin Miller

(Who’s Afraid Of Alice Miller?)

Moderation (in German):
Brigitta Rotach, House of Religions

Daniel Howald

Born in 1966 in Basel, Daniel Howald trained at Radio DRS as a director and dramaturge for radio plays and radio documentaries. He then completed several years of film training in Paris, Düsseldorf and Switzerland. Howald has worked as a writer and director of numerous programmes, radio plays and documentaries, and is a member of the European Film Academy.

Martin Miller

Martin Miller is a psychotherapist, born in 1950 to two war refugees from Poland. His mother, child psychologist Alice Miller, was internationally famous from the 1970s onwards. After training as a primary school teacher, he too studied psychology and still works as a therapist today.