Ein Stück Himmel

Interrupted on the tenth day of filming, this is the second full-length feature by actor, scriptwriter and director Michael Koch, in competition at Locarno in 2016 with Marija. The action takes place in a remote mountain village peopled by seasoned locals who help tell the story of a couple in the grip of illness.

– Antoine Thirion, Selection Committee

Michael's Journey in the Festival's History

E Nachtlang Füürland (1981) is a restless odyssey through the nightlife of Bern in 1981.  Max Rüdlinger plays a wonderfully comical, worn-out newsreader who has become very disillusioned but instead of changing his life, has made himself comfortable in the role of the unhappy grumbler. He drifts from bar to bar during an ice-cold winter night in Bern and finally meets a woman with the opposite energy. For one moment the possibility of change beckons - at least for a brief moment everything seems possible again. Almost casually, the camera follows the protagonists and captures the feverish excitement of the night. In a mixture of discovered situations and planned encounters, one sees Max Rüdlinger and some non-professional actors improvising through the night.  The film is both a document of the times and a beautiful, always surprising, authentic, strangely funny portrait of a group of people. Even though the dialogues are not always equally well improvised, the film has an incredible freshness, freedom and energy that fascinates me. Shot on film, "E nachtlang Füürland" also demonstrates that every film lives through its performers, from their faces and characteristics. The characters' faces carry this film. There are little moments, unpolished scenes, such as the speech of a woman in a bar talking about her fight for a little freedom as a mother and housewife with an energy that blows you away.

– Michael Koch