“They are offended to see the Swiss flag being misused as a Nazi flag”

Even the premise of “Mad Heidi” should make the ears of some sober Swiss moviegoers ring. Here, our national sanctuary Heidi must be dealt with with brute force, a portion of junk and an attack on the funny bone. In “Mad Heidi”, the idyllic Swiss world has given way to the dictatorship of a cheese magnate (played by B-movie icon Casper Van Dien), who harbors an enormous hatred for people with lactose intolerance.

Mountain girl Heidi (Alice Lucy) becomes a leader of the Resistance in this exploitation film that gleefully quotes from his lurid, brutal and tongue-in-cheek 1970s role models and their epigones such as Quentin Tarantino (“Death Proof”). The financing was also unusual: the “first Swissploitation film” received 2 million francs, equivalent to about two-thirds of the budget, through international crowdfunding, which is one of the reasons why the film is largely spoken in English. The 538 supporters are automatically included in the income.

But is “Mad Heidi” the uncomfortable, unpredictable punch in the stomach of the Swiss film landscape? Especially at the beginning and at the end, the film puts you in a good mood, the timing is right. It pulls a little in the middle. In a potential sequel already being considered, there would be a lot more steam, more irritation, less targeted processing of stereotypes. The hype beforehand may have raised expectations too high.

The makers promised fan service, fan service gets the audience. Real surprises are too rare. The Swiss clichés and a few whimsical statements (“Rest in Cheese!”) usually stick to the cheese. Still, it was good and courageous to make such a film in Switzerland; especially against some resistance, the makers explained at the Zurich film festival.

How did you come up with the idea for “Mad Heidi”?
Johannes Hartmann, director: I like B movies and exploitation movies from the 70’s. Looking for stories that could be implemented in Switzerland, I came up with the idea of ​​mixing the clichés of old Swiss homeland films with elements of action, horror and comedy.

When did you know the funding model would be crowdfunding?
John Hartman: That became clear pretty quickly when we talked to the producers. I first approached the producers of «Iron Sky». Then someone recommended me Valentin, who did “One Way Trip” in 2011, which was classically financed, but was still a genre contribution from Switzerland. Certainly not every film is suitable for this form of financing. But I think genre movies are predisposed to this because they have a very passionate fan community and people are also willing to buy the t-shirt for the movie.

Streaming providers are now also increasingly relying on genre productions…
Valentin Greutert, producer: But that was never an option for me as a producer. They are mortal enemies to the kind of film we make. We are independent filmmakers and we don’t want American scammers to bother us. It was about finding a new way of financing and not about walking the old, well-trodden paths. If you’re making a movie like “Mad Heidi” for Netflix, you’re just the henchman of a commissioned production, that’s not interesting. Finally, we are building our own brand with “Mad Heidi”. In addition, it was very easy to work with the fans, to get their feedback and support.

hartman: Without the efforts of the fans, the project would not have survived. You always kept the motivation high.

In 2020 there was, among other things, a script meeting with the fans, where they could contribute their own ideas. How did investor expectations translate into the film? Hasn’t your artistic freedom and independence suffered a bit?
Greutert: It’s not like the fans have veto power. And they trust us too. When we went to Brussels, just 30 of our investors came with us, almost as if we were pop stars and they were the groupies. They supported us across the board. The swarm intelligence worked wonderfully. When we needed extras, a few came. When we were looking for a special chapel, we immediately received hundreds of suggestions. In post-production, we needed the voices of honking rebels. Within three hours, nearly 100 people had signed up. One came all the way from Italy to scream into the microphone five times.

“Mad Heidi” was already present in public beforehand, including performances by soldiers with bracelets. Was there any hostility or complaints from Switzerland about what you are about to do with your beloved Heidi?
Greutert: Numerous. During the shoot and before. In the beginning we were only taken seriously by the fans. Most people never see a movie like this and when they hear about “Mad Heidi” they think we’re badmouthing Switzerland. You can see from the film that we all love Switzerland, otherwise we wouldn’t spend so much time on it.

hartman: We’ve heard just about everything. Some are offended to see the Swiss flag being misused as a Nazi flag. Others scream “fucking multicultural propaganda”. I was particularly surprised at how certain institutions reacted to it. The case in which one of our co-authors lost his job with the Zurich Cantonal Police received a lot of attention in the media. A person who worked on the costume for Heidi was kicked out of the costume tailors association. I never thought something like this possible in 2020.

Greutert: Victorinox wanted to sue us for a pocket knife in the original teaser where we used the trademark term “Swiss Army Knife”. And it was said that we would misuse the Victorinox knife as a weapon, although that is not the case under Swiss gun law. But there is now a funny scene in the movie on this subject…

Genre film, often regarded as bizarre, does not seem to be having an easy time in Switzerland…
hartman: Good genre films are more humorous and above all often much more socially critical than all apparently relevant and pseudo-intellectual dramas. The good thing about genre films is that you can be entertaining on the surface and subversive in the subtext. Many people don’t understand that, not even among cultural funders.

But you didn’t want to do without the classic theatrical release, despite your unusual financing…
Greutert: My goal had always been to bring the film to Swiss cinemas. Cinema abroad is often not interesting because it only costs money and yields nothing. Our ultimate goal is to get donors to see their money back. The current distribution system, in which all territories in the world trade for themselves, is over. The streaming services are now slowly waking everyone up. They press the button once and the whole world is watching their stuff. We wanted to change the system and make it the way we want it.

“Mad Heidi”: In the cinema. And available as a stream on the madheidi.com homepage from December 8.