Several years ago, the festival screened Gemmi – Ein Übergang, a short film by Clemens Klopfenstein, in which Polo Hofer and Max Rüdlinger, two familiar faces from Klopfenstein’s films, delivered profound thoughts, both ridiculous and funny. Now the Swiss director brings us Das Schweigen der Männer, it becomes apparent that Gemmi was a work in progress.Polo Hofer is an optimistic man in his fifties who is plagued by a steadily more protuberant belly and other problems accompanying his age, but nevertheless he bears with fortitude the burden of being the national Swiss-German rock hero. Max Rüdlinger, once a reporter and now an actor of limited success, is the sceptic of the pair, the tormented intellectual, the ‘Woody Allen of Wankdorf’. On their journey over the mountains of Switzerland and Italy to the pyramids in the Aswan desert, the couple are accompanied by the equally-old Klopfenstein. They improvise as they squabble and prattle about subjects light and weighty: Swedish girls, parliament, saveloy sausage, death or how Polo’s death should be reported on TV.Klopfenstein manages to take advantage of the benefits and freedoms of a low-budget production. One quote: confronted at last with several Swedish girls, Max asks to know the truth about the sexual proclivities of Swedish girls. Answered with another question, he ripostes, his English far from adequate: ‘The Swiss are sexually neutral… I mean normal.’
