30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

Davos, in the Swiss Alps of the Canton of Grisons, is no longer the literary sanatorium of Europe narrated by Thomas Mann: since 1971 it has been the seat of the World Economic Forum, which annually hosts the major exponents of the world's political and economic elites. But, as directors Daniel Hoesl and Julie Niemann recount, Davos hosts the WEF for only four days a year. This documentary shows us the gap that separates an event deeply rooted in a neoliberal economy and the routine lives of those who live and work in Davos every day: farmers, ranchers, migrants and ordinary citizens who reflect another dimension with respect to the paradoxical capitalist pomp of the forum. The lens of the camera explores this complexity through the carnal concreteness of the conflict generated by the need for constant and apparently irrepressible growth.

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  Daniel Hoesl

  Daniel Hoesl, born in 1982, lives and works in Vienna. He has been an assistant director for Ulrich Seidl and Michael Sturminer and his first feature Soldier Jane (2013) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. In 2016 his second feature WinWin also premiered at Rotterdam and, like his first feature, was produced by the European Film Conspiracy, which also produced Davos, his latest documentary. 

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  Julia Niemann

  Julia Niemann, born in 1987, lives and works in Vienna as a director and screenwriter. She is also a producer in the collective, European Film Conspiracy, and author of various film and TV projects. She is currently part of the Writers' Room for the Komplizenfilm Berlin TV series project, directed by Christian Schwochowm. As a freelance journalist she writes about politics and culture and her texts have appeared in Zeit and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.