| ISRAEL-PALESTINE:
A SWISS MAN IN THE EYE OF THE STORM (53 min) Israel/Palestine |
Director: Xavier Nicol
Producers: Anne-Frederique Widmann, Jean-Philippe Ceppi
Description:
Abuse of power, nepotism, management issues, and having
an affair with a colleague. These are the accusations that last year
forced Swiss national, Pierre Krähenbühl, to resign from his post
of Commissioner General of the UNRWA, the UN agency that supports
Palestinian refugees. But are they truth or fabrication? What is he
really guilty of? Looking at previously unseen documents, Temps
Présent picks up the trail of this scandal, detecting more than a
whiff of geopolitical score-settling.
Biography:
Xavier Nicols became a film
enthusiast when he discovered Star Wars in 1977. He learned his trade on the job in Paris, especially at
Canal+, where he contributed to Les Nuits: l’émission and to
several video clips (Zazie, Bashung, George Michael). He also worked
as an assistant to Krzysztof Kieślowski (Three Colours trilogy).
Xavier Nicols began working for RTS in 1993, where he discovered
journalism. He has been making documentaries for the programmes A
bon entendeur , Scène de ménage , Mise au point, and Temps Présent ever
since.
Anne-Frédérique Widmann is
a Swiss investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker. After being
US correspondent for the Swiss press, she has been the co-producer,
editor-in-chief, and anchor of the current affairs documentary
program Temps Present.
In 2010, she set up the investigative team of the Swiss TV and Radio
Broadcasting Corp. (RTS), which she led until 2014. Widmann’s
investigative documentaries, An Eye for an
Eye: The Vengeance of the Gaddafi Clan directed
by Marie-Laure Widmer Baggiolini and Migrants on the road to hell,
directed by Xavier Nicol, were nominated for the Europa Prize. The
Vengeance of the Gaddafi Clan was also a
finalist of the Italia Prize. In 2010, she was awarded the Nicolas
Bouvier Prize for best documentary for her work in Columbia (Swiss
diplomats in the Columbian trap, directed by
Widmer Baggiolini). Co-founder of the project Windows on death row
with her husband the editorial cartoonist Chappatte, in 2018, Widmann
has released the feature documentary Free Men about Arkansas death row inmate Kenneth Reams.
Contact Information:
w: www.rts.ch
e: Isabelle.Wehrli@rts.ch
