Mouths Les Bouches

by Valentin Merz

Switzerland, Mexico
2024
25 min
Spanish, French, English / with French subtitles
Short film
Color

En Compétition 2024

Official synopsis

Two barrel organ players roam the streets of Juárez, a district of Mexico City. They play their music and ask passers-by for money, while a couple of tourists from Paris set up an insurance fraud...

Biography and Filmography

Valentin Merz was born in Zurich, where his mother migrated to from Istanbul. He worked in Mexico City, as a typographer, and in Berlin for five years in cinema and theatre. In 2014, he then made film studies at the Haute École d’Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva. His short films have screened at festivals around the world. BRÜDER – EIN FAMILIENFILM, premiered at Visions du Réel 2020. DE NOCHE LOS GATOS SON PARDOS is his feature debut, which premiered in 2022 in Locarno, where it won a Special Mention for Best First Feature. Since then, it screened at international festivals, including Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, Sevilla, São Paulo and the Berlin Critics’Week. He has just completed his latest short film LES BOUCHES.

 

2024 : Les Bouches (SHORT - Valentin Merz - Director

2023 : Xquipi / Ombligo (SHORT) - Valentin Merz - Director

2022 : De noche los gatos son perdos - Valentin Merz - Director

2020 : Brüder – Ein Familienfilm (SHORT) - Valentin Merz - Director  

2019 : Rêver comme lui (SHORT) - Valentin Merz - Director

by Valentin Merz

Valentin Merz was born in Zurich, where his mother migrated to from Istanbul. He worked in Mexico City, as a typographer, and in Berlin for five years in cinema and theatre. In 2014, he then made film studies at the Haute École d’Art et de Design (HEAD) in Geneva. His short films have screened at festivals around the world. BRÜDER – EIN FAMILIENFILM, premiered at Visions du Réel 2020. DE NOCHE LOS GATOS SON PARDOS is his feature debut, which premiered in 2022 in Locarno, where it won a Special Mention for Best First Feature. Since then, it screened at international festivals, including Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, Sevilla, São Paulo and the Berlin Critics’Week. He has just completed his latest short film LES BOUCHES.

 

2024 : Les Bouches (SHORT - Valentin Merz - Director

2023 : Xquipi / Ombligo (SHORT) - Valentin Merz - Director

2022 : De noche los gatos son perdos - Valentin Merz - Director

2020 : Brüder – Ein Familienfilm (SHORT) - Valentin Merz - Director  

2019 : Rêver comme lui (SHORT) - Valentin Merz - Director