A great film to kick off the Visions du Réel festival - "Kampf der Königinnen" - "The fight of the Queens"
This film will be shown again tonight Friday 22:30 at the Capitole Cinema 1 and Wednesday 13 at 18:30 at the Usine A Gaz. Remember there is a new ticketing system for the festival this year and you can now buy your tickets on line in advance to ensure a seat. Alternatively, you can buy them at the box offices at the Salle Communale or the Théâtre du Marens or Usine a Gaz . The film is in German with subtitles in English and French.
The "Avant Première" of the film "The Fight of the Queens" - "Kampf der Königinnen" directed by Nicolas Steiner kicked off Visions du Réel on Wednesday night at the Theatre du Marens to an almost full house. At the screening, the directors and production crew were on hand to answer questions posed by Luciano Barisone, the festival director. When Steiner was asked why he had chosen the subject of the cow fighting as a documentary, he replied that when he was a young boy, if he asked his friends to go out cycling or play basketball with him on the same day of the cow fight, they never wanted to go with him, they wanted to be at the big event. Initially he wasn't interested in it at all, but curiosity got the better of him, he went along, he then became interested in the Swiss tradition and consequently decided to film it.
This is not a barbaric fight
If you have never been to a "Combat des Reines" and you too are curious, and want to see what it is all about and discover a bit more about Switzerland, then this film is for you. This fight, between two cows done in the public eye in an arena with over 10,000 spectators, is not barbaric. It is not bullfighting between man and bull with blood spilled or a crowd baying for blood. This is simply a confrontation between two animals in which the animal's natural instinct is to defend its pasture, and each year a series of these cow competitions takes place in the Valais region of this country.
The film begins in the interior of a cow shed with a farmer feeding and fattening his cow in preparation for the fight. In enters a small child, barely a toddler he stands near the animal and the farmer lets him feed him. This image of the tiny child and the massive beast together is one of many lovely images that appear throughout the film. Check the trailer out on the site to see a great slow motion shot simply of a cow opening and closing one eye.
Photo above: Courtesy Visions du Réel. We see local boys getting ready to go to the competition chatting about their motorbikes, and the girls that they hope will be there at the arena. We are also introduced to a radio reporter on his way to the fight, a townie from Zurich who knows nothing about the tradition but thinks it might be worth a look in and reporting on. Quiet scenes gradually bring us into the noise and bustle of the arena itself where hundreds of farmers are gathered with their cows tethered. Cows snorting , cows scratching the ground, cows being weighed and a number painted on their flanks to enter into the competition. Cows called "Shakira", cows called "Melancholy" all waiting for their turn in the ring. The cows are at the centre of this film but its the owners of the cows that are the star turn: the young farmer who is anxious for his cow to win; the pretty young farmer who is ecstastic when her cow qualifies for the next round, the quiet farmer whose sweatshirt is emblazoned with a list of the winning years his cow has won the competition. There are some wonderful portrayals of individuals. Children climb in and out of pick up trucks, teenage boys flirt with girls The day of the fight is also Mother's Day, so to honour it, a line of men in jeans and checked shirts unfurl a banner in the centre of the stadium on which is written " Happy Mother's Day" while the MC shouts out the same over the loudspeaker. Whether this really is a mum's idea of a good day out to celebrate her day is anybody's guess, but the crowd seem happy, and it's a family occasion. They queue up for ice creams, children climb in and out of pick up trucks, teenage boys flirt with girls and try to blend in with the real men in the beer tent. The cinematography and music to the narrative climax are both superb, the final fight a visual treat. When it is finished and the winners are announced, we the audience want the owners of the cows to win as much as they do. When the results are announced we are happy. Yet there is no whooping or screaming from the winners, there is the occasional high five between fellow farmers, the hug of a family member and then it's time to receive the enormous cow bell prize, to pack up and quietly go back up with their beloved animals to the mountain villages until next year.