Daniel Schmid, a Swiss director whose name is linked to the New German Cinema movement by virtue of having studied at the Berlin Film Academy, will be remembered at Cannes as the director of one of the most controversial films ever presented in the main programme: Schatten Der Engel (Shadow Of Angels, 1976). Starring Ingrid Caven and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in a screen adaptation of Fassbinder`s drama The City, The Garbage And Death, the play still cannot be staged in Germany for political reasons, although productions have recently been greeted with audience acceptance and critical approval in Israel and Los Angeles.

Born in 1941, Schmid is one of those directorial talents who moves easily between making films and staging operas. Honoured recently with a retrospective tribute at the Saarbrucken festival, he admitted candidly that some of his best films have an operatic tone about them, like the experimental La Paloma (1974), presented at the Berlinale, and Tosca's Kiss (1984), a documentary shot at an old people's home for retired opera singers in Milan. He's also been a welcomed guest at Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Locarno, with such entries as Violanta (1977), Hécate (1982), Jenatch (1987), Hors Saison (1992) and The Written Face (1995).

Beresina, oder die letzten tage der schweiz, a Swiss-German-Austrian co-prodcution invited to Un Certain Regard at Cannes, is billed as a black comedy under the teasing subtitle The Last Days Of Switzerland. It's the story of Irina (Elena Panova), a lovely Russian call girl who falls in love with the Alps the day she arrives in Switzerland, although she knows all too well that her entire family back in Russia depends on her for support. Irina's clientele, arranged through shady Doctor Waldvogel (Ulrich Noethen), includes the cream of Swiss interest groups: businessmen, politicians, military officers and media moguls some of whom will go so far as to propose marriage. The trick, however, is to obtain a Swiss passport - but only if she agrees to work as an informer. Ron Holloway