Riverboom

In the organizer's words:

A few months after September 11, 2001, Lausanne typographer Claude embarks on an impromptu trip to Afghanistan with a fake press card - his ambitious reporter friend Serge wants to distract him from the loss he has recently suffered. Third in the group is the less Protestant war photographer Paolo, who immediately senses competition in Claude, who has spontaneously equipped himself with a camcorder - from now on, still and moving images travel in a double pack, artistic shadows in b/w compete with the amateurish charm of spontaneous snapshots. The three quickly leave the alternative reality of the US military base and, with more luck than sense, search for the real Afghanistan at bazaars, in warlords' living rooms, on paths with mine warning signs and with gangs in no man's land. At the Boom River, hardship welds them together once again before the camcorder tapes finally run out. Two decades later, the footage that was thought lost resurfaces - and tells the dusty and scratched story of a friendship and our awkward view of foreign wars.

CH 2023. montage: Kevin Schlosser. Director, screenplay, camera, sound: Claude Baechtold. Sound: Benjamin Benoit, Denis Séchaud. Production: Intermezzo Films. Distribution: First Hand Films, Zurich. Theatrical release: 12.9.2024 (German-speaking Switzerland).
95 minutes. French, English, with deu. UT.