About Swiss bankers and other secrets during the dictatorship

About Swiss bankers and other secrets during the dictatorship

Andreas Fontana: That is explained in the middle of the movie. It is an idiom typical of the banking dialect of Geneva, where the main character comes from. And that dialect is pretty exclusive. I am talking about the private banks that bear the surname of their members as their title and operate like small aristocracies, small kingdoms, with a hereditary tradition. My grandfather had a private bank, one of those that manage their clients’ assets as if they were the family tailor, but the dynasty fell apart when my father preferred to dedicate himself to sculpture.

Q.: And the grandfather did not have another son?

AF: He had three daughters, but tradition required a son. That only changed at the end of the 20th century, we Swiss are quite conservative. Then women could not figure in the foreground, not even on an equal footing. My grandmother, for example, who was very intelligent, enjoyed opulence but could not develop as a professional. However, it is known that wives used to move invisibly, as good advisers to their husbands.

P.: Like, in this case, the protagonist’s wife.

AF: Yes. I found it interesting that there was a female character that was as bad as she was smart. In truth, no one is very good in this story, but they are all good by their own logic, and smart.

Q.: And although the local fauna attracts us particularly, I suppose that its main interest lay in the moral hazard of the Swiss bankers.

AF: I liked exactly that, the moral hazard of the bankers. And his strategies, when a client proposes to go beyond the limits! Because the banker can have strategies to not advance, or to advance, or to pretend that he does not advance. A private bank may feel empowered to offer extra services to the Aga Khan, but it’s another thing when you start dealing with people of a different status, or with a large criminal exposure. The temptation can also be great. About that, a banker quoted a phrase from Mark Twain: “Virtue has never been as respectable as money.”

Q.: Is there any history of those with Argentine clients?

AF: There were Argentine clients, there were always many, in Swiss commercial banks, and 15 or 20 officials from distant governments in high-society private banks. I learned of strong stories, precisely about the time I am telling. For the film, I did extensive research among landowners, financiers, bankers, and horse owners. Some showed me very little empathy, others were lovable, sometimes even very open-minded. When portraying them I tried to be respectful with them. It would have been easy to turn them into caricature.

Q.: The character of the monsignor is quite caricatured.

AF: He’s a gambler! That comes from my own experience. Years ago, I went to chat with an Argentine banker in the Circle of Arms, and suddenly a prelate arrived, sat down to eat with other gentlemen, and all the time he talked about money (and not for charity). That caught my attention.

Q.: Coincidentally, there is a scene set in the Circle of Arms, but…

AF: They didn’t give us permission. It was filmed at the Naval Center.

Q.: Beautiful building. How was the plot developing?

AF: It was crossing layers, accumulating observations, and keeping in mind the following: a Swiss banker is a well-suited bureaucrat you see every day having lunch in a fancy place. But outside of Switzerland he is an agent at risk of doing something prohibited. There is something, they call “the camel tour”. From there, Mariano Llinás helped me to give more credibility to this story, and adjust the fictional point. María Laura Berch, great casting director, selected a very unique cast, largely made up of real bankers and financiers. They are perfect faces. They had to be convinced, but cinema is a very powerful attraction.

Q.: “Azor” has already been seen in Switzerland? What impact did it have?

AF: It had a small success, but little repercussion. Switzerland is not used to wondering about itself, I don’t know if it likes to see itself. The Swiss is pragmatic, everything that could affect his pragmatism he tries to avoid. But on the other hand he is discreet, he avoids ostentation, if a Swiss is rich, you will not notice it. And this is good.

Q.: Are you already preparing another film?

AF: Yes, also with Llinás, a story set in the world of diplomats. Also, discreet people.

Source: Ambito

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