Kampf der Königinnen

Directed by Nicolas Steiner

Battle of the Queen is a film from and about rural Europe, capturing a timeless cultural event: a series of head-to-head fights of cows set in the valley in sunny Southern Switzerland, nestled amongst the Alps. The fights are sudden snorting seesaws, explosions of mass and muscle, archaic and wild spectacles. We follow three concurrent story lines: an anxious farmer with his beloved contender, a neurotic unemployed reporter from Zurich coming to find a story, and a gang of adolescent boys on mopeds trying to catch a pretty girl's eye. The festival is a balancing act between fascinating tradition and modernity. This black and white film serves as both an exciting visual treat and a long overdue documentation of a fascinating Swiss tradition.