Ernstfall in Havanna

the best swiss movie with an international appeal since years. Love it! Viktor Giacobbo's first big picture is a must for all of his fans. the movie is funny and thrilling - never boring. It's not a usual - depressive - swiss movie. For me, this movie should be consider for the oscars!

All right, so this movie is a heap of clichés. But it's still quite possibly the funniest Swiss film ever, at least to a local - I'd be very interested in the reactions of other nationals!

The arrogant rich Swiss ambassador to Havana is called home, to be temporarily replaced by an inhibited (and probably almost as rich) deputy, Stefan Balsiger, played by nationally popular comedian Viktor Giacobbo. This Swiss Woody Allen proceeds to lord it over his subalterns, whose biggest worry by far seems to be the authenticity of the Swiss meat served at the embassy's apéros. Enter, one after the other: A blonde Swiss photographer. An aging US senator travelling incognito. A vivacious Cuban barmaid of dubious reputation. Yes, up to here the plot does rather follow the viewer's expectations, and since that's what happens, there is now a place in the story for a second, more glamorous blonde, who digs up dirt for an US news channel. But then... to quote Swiss author Friedrich Duerrenmatt: A story is not thought through until it has taken the most awful turn possible. If you live where I do, go see this one!

To me this is the best Swiss comedy since "Beresina" - and yet so different. "Beresina" is much more over-the-top, sometimes downright surreal, whereas "Ernstfall in Havanna" is a "straightforward" comedy.

Don't expect anything like "Viktors Spätprogramm" - thank Goodness Giaccobbo has resisted the temptation to just produce one sketch after the other, this would have been unbearable and not the least funny. But "Ernstfall" is, andnobody gets off lightly: The Swiss, the Cubans, the Americans, everybody is made fun of.

My favourite scene is when the crisis meeting with the Swiss foreign minister (a wonderful parody of Joseph Deiss) and his crisis meeting watch what happens in the Swiss Embassy in Cuba on CNN, and suddenly somebody asks, "What does Swiss Television say?"...

Go and see it for yourself!

I saw this movie with a friend in a dinky theater in my home town, and laughed heartily more than once. Most jokes play on certain Swiss stereotypes and weaknesses that the local audience obviously understood very well, but I wonder how a foreign audience might react. Would they understand the constant gags about Swiss German? How on earth could they catch the subtle characterizations via local dialects? Would the "artful" centerpiece of the Swiss reception strike them as a funny parody of the art our country supports or as simply dumb? The plot itself - the desperate attempt of a Cuban to gain freedom and the ensuing chaos as the inept Swiss try to fix what they let other bungle - will still entertain, but might easily have lost much of its lovable charm.

I seem to be the first person without a Swiss address reviewing this film, although I did live for two years in Bern recently. I saw it this summer in Berlin as part of the Festival des europäischen Films. (It was the perfect opportunity for me to see it with German rather than English subtitles so I could follow more of the Schwyzertütsch.) I found it hilarious, but my friends all stayed home or went out to see Terminator 3 that night, so I can't say whether the humor would have carried over to someone who didn't have the background for the Swiss in-jokes.

I can't speak for the Cubans, but the film does do a good job of twitting both Swiss and Americans, sometimes in the same exchange (e.g., the early conversation between the senator and the driver about the Stefan's bosses). Basically, I would recommend this film heartily to anyone with Swiss connections and curiously to anyone without.