Apart from being famous for its innumerable banks, chocolates and watches, Switzerland is equally famous for its peace loving people. It is precisely this quality which impels many people young and old alike to seek Swiss nationality in order to lead a better life than what they have been leading. This is something which viewers can watch in 'Beresina', a film where Swiss director Daniel Schmid chooses to reveal the weaknesses of influential Swiss people when they are duped by a meek person exploited by them. It is fun to watch how the family members of victims endorse the presence of the exploited person in their midst. Daniel Schmid's film depicts some powerful Swiss people namely an army general, some industrialists, a media specialist etc who misuse their power as well as position to indulge in personal pleasures. This film also features a discussion about how far can an ordinary person go in order to dream something big in life? There is also a sub plot about basic human values as a young Russian prostitute's innocence is shattered when a letter informs her of not having obtained the Swiss nationality. The entire story runs slowly until viewers finish watching three-fourths of the film. It is only in the last parts that some crucial events happen which herald the destruction of Switzerland. Despite being a story about an expensive call girl, Berezina is not at all exploitative. It has been hailed as a comedy film but watching it, one would not laugh in the same manner as how other people do when they watch Chaplin, Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd.
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Sergeiii16 August 1999This is by far the funniest Swiss movie to hit the screens since decades, maybe with the sad exception of Thomas Koerfer's "Green Henry" - where all the puns were unintentional. The plot of "Beresina" is so original that no word should be lost about it in front of anyone who intends seeing the movie. The acting is superb throughout, with newcomer Elena Panova carrying the whole film on her shoulders with amazing ease. Still, this doesn't mean "Beresina" is a perfect satire. Schmid is not a comedy director by nature, and sometimes the film suffers from the maker's conviction that any kind of overstatement or repetition is funny in its own right. Furthermore, the strong focus on national themes will hardly allow the film to travel very far. However, what finally matters here is that Swiss cinema has been in need of a vital injection for a very long time, and that this movie is doubtlessly it.
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SwissChris9 October 1999Beresina is definitely funnier than that classic of Swiss comedy, Die Schweizermacher. The exaggerated way in which everything is portrayed is hilarious and never dumb. I don't know if it's equally funny for people who have never been to Switzerland though - you mightn't get some of the jokes. But everybody else: Go and see it, you'll have a laugh.
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Mort-318 August 2001One of my favourite playwrights is Friedrich Dürrenmatt who came from Switzerland and wrote plays of some let's say political-philosophical significance. He used to turn the world (especially the Swiss one) around and examine it from a rather twisted point of view, but usually he hit the nail on the head. This movie transfers in a hilarious way the Swiss mentality as Dürrenmatt would have presented it. Daniel Schmid gives a wonderful satirical portrait of his country although there aren't almost any Swiss actors speaking the Schwytzerdytsch` other German speaking citizens usually spoof about Switzerland, and although the two leading characters are not Swiss but Russian and from another country (I couldn't filter out which). Weird jokes, surprisingly good actors and a satirical plot that gets better and better in course of the movie make Beresina` a sadistic pleasure for every viewer. Of course, the ending and the message of the movie are somewhat exaggerated, but that's what satires are supposed to be. And people who know Switzerland will admit that in the main most things are not too far-fetched. I would be happy, if anybody would produce such a fine movie about my country.
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Horst_In_Translation4 October 2017"Beresina oder Die letzten Tage der Schweiz" is a Swiss German-language film from 1999, so this one will soon have its 20th anniversary. With late director Schmid and writer Suter in charge, this project unites 2 of Switzerland's most famous and successful filmmakers from the last decades. The lead actress is from Russia like her character and it may be one of Panova's most known career efforts and you probably did not expect Geraldine Chaplin to show up in here and not just for a few seconds. German film buffs will immediately recognize Ulrich Noethen and Stefan Kurt. Maybe these names are also a key reason why this film was chosen to represent at the Oscars back then, even without much awards attention. It did not manage a nomination though.
Despite all the political stuff in here, this is never a politics movie. It is also not much of a drama despite several dramatic issues being touched such as expulsion. These are always presented with an ounce of humor, frequently with very dark humor. I do think that the film had a couple solid moments here and there, but for over 100 minutes it simply wasn't enough. The absurdity may be the film's biggest strength and biggest weakness at the same time and if you have seen it you will know what I mean with that. It's never an actors' movie, but really all about the plot and subject and not about individual performances. As a consequence, this is also where the quality especially isn't enough. I would say the actors were better than the script. That doesn't mean it is a failure though. Not by any means. But maybe you really need to be Swiss to truly make a connection here. It's somewhat interesting how Switzerland is nowhere near Germany and Austria in terms of cinematic status, but also that some of the most known Swiss films are about Switzerlan. "Die Schweizermacher" would be another example. Okay, not gonna talk any more about other films now, this one here gets a thumbs-down from me overall and I do not recommend checking it out, even if it has some upside too. Go for something else instead. -
semiotechlab-658-9544416 September 2010In English: Every Swiss citizen is a menace for his own homeland. It is a fact, well known in Switzerland, that after World War II, the role of a Swiss Gestapo was taken over by every Swiss citizen himself, moving the curtain whenever someone left the house or arrived, noticing painfully if She has a man with her or not - the next time: if He is the same man She had before with her. Such a day is long, especially for the house-wives and the retired: No wonder that the results of this breathtaking observations have to be reported meanwhile and exchanged with the other finks and informers and plants. Officially, however, "Spitzels" there were only behind the Iron Curtain, and the big difference of the Swiss "Fröntler" from the German Nazis was THE reason that Hitler did not invade Switzerland. This "strategy" has even gotten a name: Geistige Landesverteidigung (Spiritual Homeland-Defense), and prices were given for people who won merits. That the most terrible events in and around World War II can obviously best or only treated in the form of comedies, we know since Chaplin's "Great Dictator" and until Achternbusch's "Das Letzte Loch". And "Beresina", too, is a comedy, although director Daniel Schmid has ever done one before. That "Beresina" grew also into Scmid's last movie, was due to his progressive disease rather than purpose.
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Osi-25 September 1999Deconstructing Switzerland, or at least its myths and legends. "Beresina" is a comedy that gains its attraction from a naive Russian girl Irina, played by Elena Panova, a very talented young actress. Although it is presented in a very fairy-tale-like way, the story takes place in today's Switzerland with all its old-fashioned clichées. But since the movie never tries to take itself too serious, it manages to give a view of the real centers of power in this "oh so beautiful little country" the way they could be. Actually at the date of release, reality has already caught up with fiction, meaning we now have a scandal about a "secret" Secret Service and a whore pretending to know the Swiss government from within. One might almost call "Beresina" the "Wag the Dog" of Swiss politics.
All in all the film's first half presents kind of a "chronicle of slowness" and hence reflects the way structures are broken and opened to new ideas in the heads of many people always being mindful of tradition. But this slow pacing can also be very amusing, as Daniel Schmid shows us. Although he never reaches the tempo of a Billy Wilder comedy, he manages to capture another speciality of the very same director: showing people the way they are, making us care for them, without taking them too serious. A pretty obvious characteristic of this movie are the constant repetitions, which may not always please, but which show effectively how the presented characters live their lives following ritualized patterns.
What makes this movie go is doubtlessly the story of Irina, the Russian callgirl. She is the only one really believing all the myths and promises around her "promised (Switzer)land", and ironically a central factor in their destruction. She provides the only emotional relation to the audience. In her idealisticly pure hope for a paradise she is willing to sacrifice even a virtue or two ("lying is a bad thing!") in order to make her dream come true.
It's also a story about friends, most of them false ones though. From a certain point in time things happen to tumble and the satire turns into a very amusing grotesque.
Watch out for the "réduit"-sequence, a true highlight! I have to admit that I would have never thought that Swiss Folk songs could be delightful sung with a Russian accent. By the way there is a powerful performance by Geraldine Chaplin, who shows us a hundred ways to open a fan
I was very pleased to see the first good Swiss movie in years, even if its attraction may somehow be limited to Switzerland and prevent it from being successful in probable foreign releases. -
rowiko7 March 2009A delightful film that had me smiling to myself for much of its running time. Who would have thought that the Swiss could take themselves so "unseriously". Made to look like a political thriller with all its intrigues and political power plays, at its heart, it's superb and hugely entertaining satire about the small Alpine Nation, its past, its values and its fears. The very first few minutes left me a bit confused and made me wonder whether this was another of those "weird" films where you never quite know what's really going on. But those first few moments were forgotten very quickly, as the film picked up pace and got better and better. Elena Panova is great in her role, and I especially enjoyed her versions of the Swiss folk songs. "Luegid vo Baerg und Tal" with a Russian accent: There's something I never thought I'd ever hear. But it totally works. The surprise ending is brilliant, to say the least. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and I wish there were more Swiss movies of this kind.
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hasosch1 April 2009Although he had planned another movie, but had to stop it because of his disease, "Beresina" is Daniel Schmid's last movie, and the feeling that he said good-bye to his homeland with this wonderful grotesque, leaves a very special feeling in the audience.
First, the biggest part of the crew are non-Swiss. Because he could come through as a Herr Sturzenegger from Niederbümpliz, even Hungarian actor Iván Darvas is in the movie and dubbed. Other good Swiss substitutes are, according to the director, Ivan Desny, Ulrich Noethen, Martin Benrath, Geraldine Chaplin and Joachim Tomaschewsky. Second, nobody speaks Swiss German in this movie, although from the scenery at least a big part was filmed in and around Zurich. Did the director take the following sentence that we hear in this movie for serious: "Every Swiss is a danger for the security of Switzerland"? Or did he want to prevent that his black comedy, which is crowded already with a lot of idiosyncratic Swiss prejudices, would glide down into ludicrousness? Whatever the reason may be - at the end, the attractive Russian call-girl Irina is crowned queen of Switzerland and the certificate in the credits guarantees us that Schmid's movie has been appreciate by the new Swiss regime.
I have rated this movie with the maximal number of points, although it is superficial slapstick that sucks from prejudices that have been applied so long that nobody really finds them funny anymore, at least not in Switzerland and in the neighboring states. However, Switzerland seems to have stayed the little Big Unknown in world history, and since this is one of the very few movies that has made it to the American audience, these prejudices from which the movies profits quite unrighteously, may not be known. On the other side, I am not fully convinced if all the typical Swiss jokes and allusions will be completely understood. The quality of directing is it what gives this movie the highest value. -
Russian call girl Irina (Elena Panova) is used and abused by everybody, but it takes some time until she realizes that. She enjoys Switzerland and wants to become a Swiss citizen. Several people promise to help her, but in fact they're only interested either in her services, information-wise (her customers include some v.i.p. people in Swiss politics and gov.t) or sex-wise (including her charming, angel-like naivete). Even the General (Martin Benrath), who promised to marry her in case she'd have otherwise to leave Switzerland, is in fact married and would never dream of marrying his as he calls her, "little Swiss girl". After having to deal with the harsh truth, she decides to pay the General a visit. He's not at home -- and she knows that he is chief of the subversive right-wing organization Cobra .. so it's payback time for Irina.... This is a very funny comedy, and one of the best Swiss films ... of the Nineties, in any case!