«Best film I saw in Locarno, by some margin.»
Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter amongst others
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Monday, November 2013, 2013
Tages Anzeiger
A film more worthy of an award was «The Green Serpent» by the Zurich based filmmaker Benny Jaberg: The Journey to the end of the Russian night is centered around men and their Vodka. Virtually drinking itself into inebriation, the film expands into an experimentally shimmering night opera. It sways over the limitations of the short film format toward a visual delusion where white elephants appear.
Excerpt of a Tages-Anzeiger article by Pascal Blum about the The 17th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
Preiswürdiger wäre «The Green Serpent» des Zürchers Benny Jaberg gewesen: Die Reise ans Ende der russischen Nacht drehte sich um Männer und ihren Wodka und wuchs sich aus zu einer experimentell flirrenden Nachtoper. Sie soff sich quasi selber in den Rausch und wankte über die Grenzen der Kurzfilmform hinein in den visuellen Wahn, wo weisse Elefanten auftraten.
Auszug aus dem Tages-Anzeiger-Artikel von Pascal Blum zu den 17. Internationalen Kurzfilmtagen Winterthur
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Thursday, August 22, 2013
Indiewire, Link to whole article
'Among Locarno's Short Films, Vodka and Sorcerers'
BY MICHAEL PATTISON
AUGUST 21, 2013 2:00 PM
One of the best films I saw at Locarno Film Festival this year was a mere 20 minutes long. Part of the Fuori concorso Shorts section, The Green Serpent: Of Vodka, Men and Distilled Dreams (a Swiss-Russian co-production) documents the merits and demerits that vodka holds for three Russian men -- actor Aleksandr Bashirov, poet Mstislav Biserov and physicist Nikolai Mikhailovich Budnev. Written, directed and co-produced by Benny Jaberg, the film had me in stitches as it repeatedly nailed, with both poignancy and hilarity, that relatable contradiction that follows an alcohol binge: emotional fragility and a sympathy for something as banal as a fluffy pet on the one hand, and a desire to see humankind annihilated on the other. Receiving its world premiere at Locarno, Jaberg's film is also a coincidental ode to the recently deceased Russian filmmaker Alexey Balabanov, whose last film Me Too (2012) also saw a trio of vodka-swilling men in a doomed pursuit of happiness.
Casually strolling along to the first public screening of The Green Serpent, I was surprised to find myself in a queue that extended well beyond the door to the street outside. Literally the last person allowed in, I sat in the stuffy pot of discomfort that was Cinecentro Rialto's 180-seat auditorium, sweating like there was no tomorrow. The uproarious laughter didn't help. But the capacity attendance spoke of an enthusiasm for short films that to this Englishman was as welcome and invigorating as it was alien. In Locarno at least, the public seem game for anything.