The European Premiere of director Peter Farrelly’s drama Green Book will open the 14th Zurich Film Festival on September 27, 2018. Farrelly and Academy Award® nominee Viggo Mortensen will attend as the Zurich Film Festival’s honored guests.
Inspired by the remarkable true friendship that transcended race, class and societal constraints of the early 1960s, Farrelly’s foray into powerfully dramatic work also stars Academy Award® winner Mahershala Ali.
When Tony Lip (Mortensen), a bouncer from an Italian-American neighborhood in the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley (Ali), a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South, they must rely on “The Green Book”, a guide book to the few establishments that were then safe and accessible for African-Americans. Confronted with racism and danger — as well as unexpected humanity and humor — they are forced to set aside differences to survive and thrive on the journey of a lifetime.
Said ZFF Co-Directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri: “We are thrilled to be opening the ZFF with Green Book, one of the season’s most anticipated films. Whilst it is set in the 1960s, Green Book feels incredibly relevant today, in the face of racism, discrimination and division in the US and elsewhere in the world. The film is also a pure delight for cinemagoers.”
Green Book opens in cinemas in Switzerland in January 2019.