"Gotthard – Progress At Any Cost“: world premiere of the Filmstiftung-backed event two-parter in Locarno

• Special screening on the evening before the festival opens
• 69th Festival del Film Locarno from 3 – 13 August, 2016

World premiere in a unique setting: the Filmstiftung-backed TV film „Gotthard – Progress At Any Cost“ by Urs Egger will presented as a special screening during the pre-festival on the Piazza Grande on 2 August, a day before the official opening of the 69th Festival del Film Locarno. A third of the production was shot in NRW. Cologne’s MMC Studios had built one of NRW’s biggest ever film sets for the tunnel’s interiors.

© MMC Studios

„The MMC Studios and its production designers delivered a masterpiece with the 100 metre-long replica of the historic Gotthard tunnel spread over an area of more than 2,000 square metres in the north of Cologne, and they have once again shown the kind of exceptional achievements the film region of NRW is capable of,“ Petra Müller, CEO of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, said. „Congratulations to the whole film team of 'Gotthard' for the invitation to screen on the Piazza Grande – we could have hardly wished a better way for the run-up to the Festival del Film in Locarno!

About the film:
Urs Eggers film is based on a screenplay by Stefan Dähnert, concentrating on the brutal working conditions as well as the collective passion with which people defy the mountain in order to complete the tunnel. The focus is on three young people: a Swiss waggoner’s daughter (Miriam Stein), a German engineer (Maxim Mehmet) and an Italian miner (Pasquale Aleardi). They love and quarrel, take up opposing positions during the harsh conflicts and yet then always find common ground. The story of the complex as well as emotional and gripping events, which keep to the historical facts about the tunnel’s construction, are told from their perspective. Carlos Leal, Max Simonischek, Joachim Król and Cornelius Obonya are among the other leads.

„Gotthard – Progress At Any Cost“ is a production of MMC Zodiac and Zodiac Pictures as a joint project by SRF, ZDF and ORF. The Film- und Medienstiftung NRW backed the project with 600,000 Euros, other backers were the Teleproduktions-Fond, Zürcher Filmstiftung, MFG Baden-Württemberg, the film funding programme of the Central Swiss Cantons as well as Switzerland’s Federal Office of Culture (BAK). The event two-parter is scheduled to be aired on German, Swiss and Austrian TV at the end of 2016.

The Festival del film Locarno is the most important Swiss film festival and will be held this year from 3 to 13 August. The festival’s official programme will be announced in mid-July.

For further information: Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Tanja Güß, Tel.: 0211-93050-24,