Amateurs & Saint Bernard To Compete At Tribeca

Swedish feature Amateurs (Amatörer) by Gabriela Pichler, and Danish comedy The Saint Bernard Syndicate (Sankt Bernhard Syndikatet) by satirist Mads Brügger have been selected for the International Narrative Competition at the 17th Tribeca Film Festival (18 – 29 April).

Tribeca’s Director of Programming, Cara Cusumano, said: “In a year that has reminded us more often of our divisions than our connections, this Festival’s program embraces film’s unique power to overcome differences – that connecting with stories not our own is the road into our deeply programmed human capacity for empathy and understanding.”

Amateurs, which won Best Nordic Film at Göteborg, is the tale of a small town hoping to reverse its fortunes by attracting a discount supermarket. Local teenagers are asked to produce films to promote the area but they don’t turn out as expected, so the project is called off. However, two girls decide to continue working on their documentary regardless.

The Saint Bernard Syndicate is about two hapless Danes’ scheme to sell Saint Bernard dogs to China’s middle class. They travel to China with a Saint Bernard and meet the mysterious Mr. Liu who owns the largest bakery in Western China. He believes that dogs are as powerful as humans, and soon the dog business evolves in unexpected ways.

The Tribeca Film Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalisation of lower Manhattan following 9/11, and has since evolved into a destination for reimagining the cinematic experience.