These 5 films belong on the watchlist at the Zurich Film Festival

The film by Dutch director Halina Reijn is about social taboos, power games and loss of control. In charge: Nicole Kidman as Romy, CEO of a major New York corporation. Her life is going according to plan: career, happy marriage, two children. But then the young intern Samuel causes chaos. He confidently ignores rules and resists Romy’s dominance. The two start an affair that awakens the tough CEO’s previously suppressed sexual fantasies.

Nicole Kidman shows “one of the bravest and best performances of her career,” says the ZFF description of the Australian actress. In Venice, Kidman was already named best actress for her performance.

Show times and tickets: Saturday, October 5th, 8:30 p.m., Congress House / Sunday, October 6th, 9 p.m., Arena / Friday, October 11th, 9 p.m., Congress House

For three years, Shelley, played by Pamela Anderson, has been dancing for her audience on the Las Vegas Strip in glittering suits and feather-adorned headdresses. Then the stage manager Eddie gives her the news that her show “Le Razzle Dazzle” will be canceled in two weeks. Suddenly the 60-year-old finds himself confronted with questions about the future and begins to stumble emotionally. Shelley tried to reconnect with her daughter, whom she had neglected badly over the years.

But the actual challenge that Shelley has to overcome is different. It’s about her having to find a place in the world that she turned her back on decades ago. At her side is her colleague and cocktail waitress Annette, played by Jamie Lee Curtis.

Show times and tickets: Friday, October 4th, 9 p.m., Congress House / Saturday, October 5, 6 p.m., Congress House / Sunday, October 13, 8:30 p.m., Corso

It is said to be the most exciting role that ex-James Bond Daniel Craig has ever played, according to several international magazines. In the latest work by Italian director Luca Guadagnino, whom Mann knows from his films “Call Me by Your Name” and “Challengers,” Craig embodies the character Lee, an American expat who flew from New Orleans to Mexico City in the 1950s . Here he can pursue his drug addiction with impunity. He gets involved in the queer scene and meets former soldier Eugene Allerton, who sleeps with him for money. Lee falls in love. And finally the two set off together to South America to look for the hallucinogenic plant Yagé.

Show times and tickets: Saturday, October 5th, 3 p.m., Corso / Sunday, October 6th, 8:45 p.m., Arena / Saturday, October 12th, 2 p.m., Kongresshaus

Shula, played by British-Zambian actress Susan Chardy, drives down a dark road in her home village in Zambia, wearing a strange outfit that quickly makes her look like an alien. Suddenly she sees a human’s corpse lying on the ground. It’s her Uncle Fred. Shula informs the members of her family, who all react unemotionally, almost strangely, to the news. Together with her cousins, Shula organizes the funeral when her uncle’s dark past slowly begins to reveal itself.

“The film is a mixture of deep, dark comedy and sharp, poetic realism,” writes the American magazine “Variety”. The Zambian-Welsh director Rungano Nyoni is known for this style, which sometimes quickly seems magical. In Cannes, her film was awarded the prize in the “Uncertain Consideration” category for its innovative storytelling.

Show times and tickets: Thursday, October 3rd, 8:45 p.m., Frame / Tuesday, October 8th, 9:00 p.m., Frame / Friday, October 11th, 8:30 p.m., Frame / Sunday, October 13th, 6:00 p.m., Corso

It is the debut film by Argentinian filmmaker Mariana Wainstein, which premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. The story is told by Linda, the newly hired domestic helper of a rich family from Buenos Aires. She dutifully completes her tasks and gets closer and closer to each and every one of them. The mother, the father and the two teenage children. Over time it becomes clear that the façade of the family, which appears so happy on the outside, slowly begins to crumble.

The film explores family dynamics and gives audiences a glimpse into Argentina’s class divides. The ZFF program manager writes: “Linda is a refreshing reinterpretation of the femme fatale, who is anything but ordinary.”

Show times and tickets: Saturday, October 5th, 9:15 p.m., Corso / Sunday, October 6th, 3:15 p.m., Frame / Tuesday, October 8th, 6:30 p.m., Frame / Saturday, October 12th, 8:15 p.m., Frame