‘Heat’ Is a Doc That Asks Who We Become When Being in Our Own Skin Is Unbearable (Exclusive VdR Trailer and Chat)

The heat is on! Just watch the work of Swiss documentary filmmaker Jacqueline Zünd (Where We Belong, Almost There, Goodnight Nobody).

She premiered her fiction feature debut, Don’t Let the Sun, at the Locarno Film Festival last year, bringing us a near-future-set cinematic contemplation of how external factors, namely climate change, affect and shape our inner worlds. Now, Zünd is getting ready to world premiere a film that dives into the same themes in a different, namely documentary, and very provocative form.

The new film, aptly called Heat, will debut at the 57th edition of the Visions du Réel (VdR) doc festival in Nyon, Switzerland, on April 20. It will screen in the international feature film competition of the fest, which opens on Friday, April 17, and runs through April 26.

Featuring highly stylized imagery and sound to bring the heat to viewers in all its intensity, the doc is set in the Persian Gulf, “one of the hottest regions in the world,” with temperatures crossing the 50 degrees Celsius/120 degrees Fahrenheit mark, and a place where “the heat becomes a force that shapes human existence,” as the press notes highlight. “The film invites us to consider heat’s impact on character, economic dynamics, and social inequalities. Heat melts layers to reveal what lies beneath the climate crisis, within human beings.”

Produced by Louis Mataré of Lomotion AG, in co-production with Real Film GmbH, Heat features cinematography by Nikolai von Graevenitz and was edited by Gion-Reto Killias.

‘Heat,’ courtesy of Lomotion

The people we meet on screen include Sophy, a young Kenyan who works in an ice bar designed to provide chilly coldness for wealthy people in Dubai, and Essa in Kuwait, a meteorologist who struggles to sound the alarm on climate realities.

“I want to translate heat visually without illustrating it, without falling for clichéd images; I‘m looking for a kind of cinematic Fata Morgana,” Zünd highlights in a director’s statement. “Is this little black figure in the middle of the desert with a tree in his hand real or not?”

Heat producer Mataré lauds the filmmaker’s approach for blending “societal relevance with a striking aesthetic,” adding: “Her protagonists bring emotional depth to themes of social inequality, highlighted through visually stunning contrasts. Heat incorporates techniques from Jacqueline’s earlier films, such as structuring narratives around a single day and employing inner voices.”

THR can now exclusively premiere a trailer for Heat, which turns up, well, the heat. So, get ready for sand and sun, but without much fun! Is that a mirage? You tell us! This one may feel too hot to handle for some viewers, so watch with caution – before reading what Zünd told THR about the documentary.

You painted a near-future picture for us of a world and its people affected by climate change in Don’t Let the Sun, which premiered at Locarno last year. How much do you consider Heat its documentary sibling and how did the two films inspire each other? I think I recognized some visuals and ideas that connected both…

To me, the two films belong together; I see them as companion pieces. Quite early on in the development phase of my feature film Don’t Let the Sun, the idea arose to create a documentary on the same topic. During my research, I read so many fascinating things that didn’t find a place in the fiction – it felt like an invitation.

It was a wonderful experience to see how the two films enriched and inspired each other. I was able to translate some elements from the documentary into the fiction, but also vice versa. At times, it was startling to find certain details from the fiction reflected in real life.

Both films explore the impact of temperatures on the inner lives and relationships of people. While watching Heat, I was surprised by how the climate adds another division between the privileged and people who are struggling. What surprised you the most about what you found? And how early did you figure out that migrants are among the people struggling the most?

Heat is like a magnifying glass, amplifying and intensifying character traits, moods, and emotions, but first and foremost, economic and social disparities.

It is striking to see the gap between the rich and the poor. Once the temperature reaches a certain point, those who can afford it no longer leave their homes; they live exclusively in air-conditioned environments, jog indoors, eat and socialize in malls, or have delivery drivers bring what they need right to their doorsteps.

It is primarily migrants – who are forced to work outdoors – who suffer from the heat. In the Arabian Gulf, many migrant workers die of heatstroke every year, but this is not something that is allowed to be discussed.

You didn’t bring us a more traditional doc with sit-down interviews with experts and data charts but really brought the heat to the screen and through the screen and gave us a real sensory experience. How did you think about and approach what you wanted to transport and the visual, audio and other styles you chose to achieve that?

I was interested in heat as a state and a borderline experience. Since my first film, Goodnight Nobody, in which I dedicated myself to insomnia, I have been interested in making conditions cinematically tangible and experienceable.

I wanted to translate heat visually, like a cinematic mirage. The film captures the vertigo, the loss of control, and the distortion of perception, making the heat physically tangible.