17/03/2022 - After two difficult years that forced the festival to reinvent itself, it is finally back with its audience and guests for an edition defined as that of "freedom regained"

After a completely online edition and one in a hybrid version, the Nyon-based festival Visions du réel is finally opening its physical doors again  from 7 to 17 April to welcome a total of 160 films (124 in the official selection), including 85 world premieres, from 68 countries. This year is marked by a considerable presence of first features (35 in total) and by meetings with three exceptional guests: the Italian director Marco Bellocchio, the American filmmaker and director of photography Kirsten Johnson and the committed Algerian filmmaker Hassen Fehrani.

Among the 124 films in the five official competitions of the festival, many are European (co)productions presented as world premieres. In this edition, the Swiss presence is also significant with 26 (co)productions. What is striking in the International Feature Film Competition is the large number of first films (9 out of a total of 16): the Swiss My Old Man [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Steven Vit, which tells the story of what retirement meant for his father after a life spent travelling, and Tizian Büchi's Like an Island [+see also:
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interview: Tizian Büchi
film profile], a magical fable about security guards in Lausanne, the French film Chaylla [+see also:
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film profile] by Clara Teper and Paul Pirritano, which tells the story of a heroine's struggle to free herself from her despotic husband, and the co-production between Belgium, France and Iran titled My Paper Life [+see also:
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film profile] by the Iranian director Vida Dena, the story of the encounter between the director and a Syrian family who have fled to Belgium. Scandinavia is also present with two first films: the Swedish All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars [+see also:
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film profile] by Jennifer Rainsford about the stigma caused by the tsunami in Japan, and the Swedish-Norwegian co-production How to Save a Dead Friend [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Marusya Syroechkovskaya. Other debut films are the co-productions 5 Dreamers and a Horse [+see also:
film review
interview: Vahagn Khachatryan and Aren…
film profile] by Aren Malakyan and Vahagn Khachatryan (Armenia/Germany/Switzerland), Dogwatch [+see also:
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film profile] by Gregoris Rentis (Greece/France) and Vida férrea by Manuel Bauer (Peru/Spain). Among the well-known directors is the Belgian anthropologist who has visited the festival in the past, Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd and his film Inner Lines [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]. Also Belgian is Lydie Wisshaupt's film Leading Lights [+see also:
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film profile], a portrait of two women involved in a project for a "different" kind of school. Europe is also represented by the two co-productions Tara [+see also:
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interview: Volker Sattel and Francesca…
film profile] by the Italian duo Volker Sattel and Francesca Bertin, the story of a river with magical powers, and A Holy Family [+see also:
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film profile] by Elvis A-Liang Lu (Taiwan/France).

There are also many European (co)productions in the Burning Lights competition (13 out of the 15 films selected). Among them are five first films: the Spanish H by Carlos Pardo Ros, which tells of a bloody crime, the story of an anonymous man gored by a bull in '69 during the San Fermín festival, Remainders [+see also:
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film profile] by Raúl Capdevila Murillo, a kind of western that retraces the director's return to his parents' home in the countryside, and the co-productions Burial [+see also:
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film profile] by Emilija Škarnulytė (Lithuania/Norway), Red Africa by Alexander Markov (Russia/Portugal) and the docufiction Ollin Blood by Elise Florenty and Marcel Türkovsky (France/Mexico). Switzerland is also present with Peter Entell's letter to his parents Getting Old Stinks [+see also:
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film profile] and Laurence Bonvin and Cheikh Ndiaye's Ghost Fair Trade, which mixes still shots, archive images and fantasy worlds. There are also many French (co)productions: the poignant portrait of an immigrant woman who loses her permit in Europe by Philip Scheffner (Germany/France), which has already been screened at the Berlin Forum, Olho animal by Maxim Martinot, and Far Away Eyes by Chun-Hong Wang (Taiwan/France). Also in competition are the European co-productions Eami [+see also:
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film profile] by Paz Encina, already winner of the Tiger Award in Rotterdam, Herbaria [+see also:
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film profile] by Leandro Listorti (Argentina/Germany) and Kapr Code [+see also:
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interview: Lucie Králová
film profile] by Czech director Lucie Králová (Czech Republic/Slovakia).

European world premieres in other sections include Roger Michell's highly anticipated Elizabeth, as well as Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits [+see also:
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film profile] by Jan Šimánek and Petr Záruba (Czech Republic/Italy) and Il posto - A Steady Job [+see also:
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interview: Gianluca Matarrese and Matt…
film profile] by Mattia Colombo and Gianluca Matarrese (Italy/France). The closing film will be the Ukrainian The Earth Is Blue as an Orange [+see also:
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interview: Iryna Tsilyk
film profile] by Iryna Tsilyk (Ukraine/Lithuania).

Other sections such as the National Competition, the International Medium and Short Film Competition and Grand Angle complete the rich programme of this 2022 edition.

(Translated from French)