'Small Talk' Film Premieres at Locarno on Aug. 11
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- "Small Talk" by Mateo Ybarra world premieres at the Locarno Film Festival on Aug. 11, blending a fictional narrative with documentary footage from inside Switzerland's only remaining etiquette school for women.
- Hélène Bares stars as Charlie, a fictional character who enrolled in the school's six-week summer program as a genuine student alongside real participants pursuing careers in the elite luxury industry, Ybarra told Variety.
- The school has operated for more than 70 years, and its core summer program remains women-only because students have repeatedly been asked and chosen to exclude men, Ybarra said.
- Urban Sales handles international sales, with sales & acquisition manager Garance Targowla calling the film rare for being both emotionally invested and ethnographically curious.
- L'Artifice produces the film with co-production from RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, produced by Ybarra and Madeline Robert.
- Ybarra framed the school as a feminist paradox — a protected, male-free space teaching women to navigate a society still structured by patriarchal and ultra-capitalist hierarchies.
Why it matters: A 70-year-old institution survives because its own students actively choose a women-only format to gain tools for entering elite luxury careers — a choice the film's director describes as negotiating rather than opposing patriarchal structures, complicating whether such schools are relics or deliberate strategy.
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