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Film Archive

Lucky Jack - Three Attempts to Stop Smoking

Documentary Films - Competition 2004 / Hans im Glück - Drei Versuche, das Rauchen loszuwerden / Switzerland 2003

Filmmaker Peter Liechti smoked for 30 long years. This film presents an unusual method of kicking the habit. With a backpack and a video camera he set out on a hike through eastern Switzerland. A tragicomic essay, the movie is dedicated to all smokers and all those addicted to anything whatsoever.  

Lucky Jack - Three Attempts to Stop Smoking Lucky Jack - Three Attempts to Stop Smoking

Synopsis

Filmmaker Peter Liechti smoked for 30 long years. This film presents an unusual method of kicking the habit. The determined man sets out on a hike from Zurich to his home town of St. Gallen, where he first fell victim to his addiction. He is prepared to repeat the journey (on foot and by rail) until he is successful; this happens the third time around. His original intention of discovering the source of his dependence through walking (and thereby beating it) gradually became a search for roots, for a lost dialogue with home and country. The director dedicated his “hikers’ road movie” to all smokers and all those addicted to anything whatsoever. This documentary journal, replete with self-irony, links shots of the journey – representing the restless view of the traveller – with archive footage (of parents; Siberia, Africa).

About the film

88 min / Color, 35 mm

Director / Screenplay Peter Liechti / Dir. of Photography Peter Liechti / Music Norbert Möslang, Fredy Studer / Editor Tania Stöcklin / Producer Peter Liechti / Production Liechti Filmproduktion / Contact Swiss Films, Liechti Filmproduktion, Accent Films International
www: www.peterliechti.ch//filmographie//hansimglück

About the director


Peter Liechti (b. 1951, St. Gallen) studied art history at university in Zurich from 1971 to 1979, and is a certified drawing instructor. Since 1986 he has been a freelance filmmaker: screenwriter, cameraman and director. His films have taken awards at various festivals, including Locarno, Turin, Leipzig, Saarbrücken and Solothurn. Selected filmography: Ausflug ins Gebirge (1986), Kick That Habit (1989), A Hole in the Hat (1991), Martha’s Garden (1997), Lucky Jack- Three Attempts to Stop Smoking (2003), Namibia Crossings (2004).  
 

Contacts

Swiss Films
Neugasse 6, CH - 8005, Zürich
Switzerland
Phone: +41 432 114 050
E-mail: [email protected]

Liechti Filmproduktion
Birmensdorferstrasse 51, 8003, Zürich
Switzerland
Phone: +41 1 242 6109
Fax: +41 1 242 6109
E-mail: [email protected]

Accent Films International
46, rue de la Gare, 1820, Montreux
Switzerland
Phone: +41 21 963 9300
E-mail: [email protected]

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Francine Brücher

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