New films from Markus Imboden and Xavier Koller among new films at the Zurich Film Festival.

Xavier Koller’s Die Schwarzen Bruder and Markus Imboden’s Am Hang are among a trio of new Swiss films announced as part of the Zurich Film Festival (September 26 – October 6).

Adapted from the successful children’s book of the same name, Koller’s family-history follows chimney sweep boys who escape from the drudgery of city life back to their mountain villages. The film premieres in the festival’s new Children’s and Family Films strand. 

Koller’s drama Journey of Hope won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1990.

The Foster Boy director Markus Imboden’s next effort is an adaption of Markus Werner’s novel Am Hang, in which two men get involved with a female phantom that draws them dangerously close to each other. Martina Gedeck, Henry Hübchen and Max Simonischek star.

Documentary Gergiev – A Certain Madness, in which photographer Alberto Venzago looks at Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, rounds out the Swiss trio.

The rest of the programme will be announced in the coming weeks.