Swiss VR film "LOS" celebrates its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival

The virtual reality experience "LOS" by Swiss filmmakers Sandro Zollinger and Roman Vital, based on a story by Klaus Merz, is celebrating its world premiere at the renowned Sundance Film Festival 2020 (23 January - 2 February 2020) in Park City, USA.

In his search for stability, Peter Thaler sets off on a hike in the Swiss mountains from which he will never return. Based on a true story, "LOS" tells of saying goodbye, both the everyday and the final, and opens the door to eternity a crack wide. An unprecedented symbiosis of literature and virtual reality creates a completely new narrative experience in which the participants become much more than just eyewitnesses to an audio book.

The texts recited by the author himself are condensed in virtual space into the story of Peter Thaler, who sets off on a hike in the mountains in his search for stability. There he takes an unfortunate tumble in a snowstorm and breaks his ankle. Lying in the soft snow, a confrontation now takes place that points beyond his inevitable end.

"LOS" thereby tells of transience, the everyday and the final, and allows a liberating view of life itself to emerge. Although the narrative anticipates the end - the silent yet significant disappearance of Peter Thaler - right at the beginning, the story creates a tension that continues to build towards a precise yet open interpretation.

Compaction without loss of content

"LOS" combines the oldest and youngest form of storytelling to create an independent, novel experience. Zollinger and Vital have selected and rearranged twelve passages from LOS, published in 2005, in which Merz creates an entire life story with his economical, vivid sentences. In doing so, they have succeeded in reducing the work of a master of condensation by nine tenths without shortening its essence.

They carefully embed this narrative essence in an impressive journey through a virtual world. This world of "LOS" tells the story through haunting moods, it triggers emotions with mere hints and repeatedly awakens a wide variety of associations. In doing so, the 25-minute virtual reality experience succeeds in bringing literature in its
ambiguity, to illustrate it without gimmickry and not to illustrate it.

The art of VR

"LOS" manages the feat of finding a balance between the imagination triggered by the text and the overwhelming visual power of virtual reality, telling a story that has never been told before.

"From a film narrative perspective, there is a fundamental difference: in virtual reality, the viewer takes over some of the direction. Because they can look wherever they want, they choose their own frame. In storytelling, however, as the director, I want control. I want what is important for the story to be seen. That's how I come into the storytelling
With virtual reality, you can't avoid always directing the viewer's attention in the direction of the story, so to speak. So in one way or another, I always have to wave like a tour guide on a city tour: there's something to see here, there's the story," says Sandro Zollinger.

The trailer whets the appetite for more:

Running time: 25 min
Language versions: German, English, French
Start of tour: May 2020
Performance venues: film and literature festivals, art museums and galleries, cultural events, schools, private events, etc.

Source: Lot