Discoveries from Switzerland World Cinema

Klaus Koska is the only witness to an assassination - but after he reports his observations to the authorities, he is suddenly the hunted after instead.

Portraits of the bouncers of the Flamingo Club in Zurich.

A high-stakes drama set in the world of gambling, where a clever but morally conflicted roulette player, Alex Joski, joins forces with a desperate woman battling debt. As they pursue an “unfailing system” to beat the casino, their alliance is tested by jealousy, mistrust, and the reappearance of the woman’s troublesome former lover.

A woman wakes up with the urge to film blood. In Paris, her city, she meets a blood conveyor, a transplant doctor, a chimaera… And she remembers a trial she followed a long time ago: the contaminated blood trial. Yamina Zoutat has constructed a moving quest about transmission, drawing on the hidden matter from which our bodies are made.

A crazy referendum throws Switzerland into a state of emergency. By the acceptance of the initiative “No Bilangue” there should be from now on only one national language: French. Many German-speaking Swiss are therefore having a crisis.

A prize-fighter spends 16 years in prison for killing his wife during a blind rage. Upon his release, he wanders the grim streets of an empty French housing project in search of his now teen-age daughter. His quest forms the basis of this gripping French drama. Krim is the fighter and Yasmine his estranged daughter. Krim finds his old apartment block, but it is abandoned and slated for destruction. He is terribly disappointed, for all Krim wants right now is to be happy and to have his daughter back. He sends messages back to his friend and mentor in prison telling him how wonderful it is to be out of jail. His friend, Eugene, a lifer, isn't fooled for a second and is very angry at Krim for lying to him. Meanwhile, Krim stumbles across Nora, a teen-age drug addict, who could be his long-lost daughter. Eventually, he locks her in an abandoned flat and helps her get off the junk cold-turkey. It is a terrible scene, but he succeeds and the two begin a new kind of relationship.

Documentary about the inhabitants, both human and animal, of the Belgian Congo.

The production bears the imprint of the conductor, Marko Letonja, and the director, Tobias Richter, whose understanding is ideal: both breathe a troupe spirit - specific to comedy - into this heterogeneous cast, which brings together young and old. Both give as much importance to recitatives as to arias and ensembles.

On her honeymoon on a ship the daughter of a rich plant owner realizes that she's not happy with her marriage. She meets a poor woman on the way to meet her future husband, a missionary in India. The women decide to swap roles...

The multi-award-winning Finnish documentarian Mika Kaurismäki, brother of Aki Kaurismäki (The Man Without a Past), helms the nonfiction work Sonic Mirror -- a protracted exploration of rhythm as one of life's driving forces. Revered drummer Billy Cobham serves as host, taking the audience on a long musical journey around the world and through a myriad of musical genres and styles. Cobham, Kaurismäki, and co. segue from Western concert halls and stages to the music of African tribes performed by Brazilian street children to the distinct music of autistic patients. Along the way, the filmmakers raise serious questions about the function of music as an identifying force, a means of communication, and an emotional release; they also probe the enduring connections between group awareness and self-awareness. The film ultimately builds to a hugely affirming and cathartic expression of music as collective expression that unifies its performers in spirit.

Marija, a young Ukrainian woman, earns a living as a cleaning woman in a hotel in Dortmund, but dreams of having her own hairstyling salon, and puts away some money each month. But when she is fired without notice, her dream is suddenly postponed to an uncertain future. Jobless and under financial pressure, she is forced to look for alternatives but, in order to achieve her goal, she is ready to discard her body, her social relationships and her own feelings.

Josef Rainer is a road worker in a mountain village in Liechtenstein. His wife Marianne works as a waitress in a restaurant to improve the meager housekeeping money. Some people ask themselves why she has married that poor devil since she could have married into money. But she stays to the keen wood carver. He works out fantastic objects of tree roots, but villagers jeer at him. The family dreams to get a cow of their own to be more independent. One day Josef scrapes together all savings and goes to the cattle market. Due to lack of money, a clever farmer palms a skinny, sick cow off on him. The children Hansli and his friend Ludmila take the cow to their heart. Ludmila even lends her name to the animal. Some time later Josef falls from a mountain and is unable to work for a long time. So a decision is made that cow Ludmila which produces no milk has to be slaughtered.

When a black couple vacations at a resort in Switzerland, an interracial affair stirs racial tensions among the townsfolk.

The only film that Kurt Kühn made (alongside a few commissioned works) has 44,701 images. 44,701 images run in front of the viewer according to an open structural principle and refer to the basis of every film: individual images that are combined into movements of all kinds. Time plays a major role in X-Bilder.

AGNI, a visual artist in the twilight of his life, is rushing to complete his monumental work. Caught up in a frantic creative routine despite his declining health, he transforms every gesture, every moment into a final trace of his passage. Soon, he knows, he will join the stars.

The story of three Turkish men. They all grew up in Switzerland and all got deported after various criminal offenses.

High schooler Felix has his eyes – and heart – set on the beautiful Sabrina, but his only comfort from his abusive home life and the bullies at school is his best friend Linda. When one incident goes too far, Felix plots revenge... deadly revenge.

“Many years ago, men and lions used to live in peace together and were allies. They protected each other. But little by little men forgot about their deal and in the end the lions did the same.” These are the words that Lionel’s dying grand-father whispered to him in his village in Africa. Lionel is an 11-year-old boy who leaves happily in Switzerland with his mother and step-father. During a school trip to the zoo, Lionel is irresistibly attracted to an old lion lying in a cage. The lion starts to communicate with him and asks him to find a way to set him free in order to go back to Africa. With the help of his best friend Federico and of his classmates, Lionel is determined to keep his promise…

A very personal look at the history of cinema directed, written and edited by Jean-Luc Godard in his Swiss residence in Rolle for ten years (1988-98); a monumental collage, constructed from film fragments, texts and quotations, photos and paintings, music and sound, and diverse readings; a critical, beautiful and melancholic vision of cinematographic art.

19-year-old Alessandra is a wrestling student. As a newbie, her goal is to develop a so-called "gimmick" for herself. A ring character of her own, which should become very similar to her due to her biographical cornerstones. This film documents this development process, which at the same time also represents an inner journey of self-discovery for Alessandra. But on her way to becoming a full-fledged wrestler her life changes in an unexpected way, which forces her to grow up faster than expected.

A piñata experiences the same fateful day over and over again, on which it is bought by a girl and finds death at her garden party. Shocked, the piñata tries to break out of this eternal cycle.

The village of Tamaquito lies deep in the forests of Colombia. Here, nature provides the people with everything they need. But the Wayúu community's way of life is being destroyed by the vast and rapidly growing El Cerrejón coal mine. Determined to save his community from forced resettlement, the leader Jairo Fuentes negotiates with the mine's operators, which soon becomes a fight to survive.

In this interesting World War I drama, Bruno Ganz gives a compelling performance as Jakob, an obsessive inventor who lives in a Swiss village. He receives unconditional support from his friend Otti (Walo Luond), but that is about all; the other villagers do not tolerate Jakob's eccentricities very well, and regard him as a crackpot. He perserveres in spite of this obstacle and finally invents a viable carriage that does not run on wheels but on a tread. Unfortunately for Jakob, the military have already come up with the same invention: the tank. The discovery finally breaks him, and he is quickly shuttled off to an asylum.

The interactive roadmovie follows the trail of a convicted war criminal with ties to Switzerland. On a journey through contemporary Rwanda, the viewer decides how deeply he wants to immerse himself in the story.

Anna, a creative schoolgirl, accidentally clones herself by hiding inside a mysterious talking copier in the teacher’s room. Suddenly confronted by two identical Annas, a whirlwind of misunderstandings and mischievous antics ensues at home and school. Through the chaos of juggling double chores, double friendships, and double secrets, Anna learns about responsibility, teamwork, and the value of her own unique self.

When young musicians come together to play classical music, they send out a strong signal to our today’s world. The film follows talented young Swiss musicians as they work, search for inspiration, but also expose their thought how to play nowadays the “old” Classical music.

For our 67th annual ski and snowboard film, we're revisiting some of Warren's favorite places. We followed Grete Eliassen and Jess McMillan into the Swiss Alps, and Kaylin Richardson and Chris Anthony around Deer Valley to pay homage to Stein Eriksen. We chased JT Holmes, Jonny Moseley and Jeremy Jones around Squaw Valley, and Tyler Ceccanti and Collin Collins across Montana's Glacier Country. From Crested Butte, Kicking Horse and vertical lines in Alaska to pond skimming in Steamboat, these are your winter dreams, set to film. We also managed to dream up few spots Warren himself never dreamed of filming: Olympic snowboard champion Seth Wescott and Rob Kingwill carve sea-to-sky peaks at the end of the earth in Greenland, and the best big air riders in the world takeover Boston's Fenway Park. This year, we went where our legacy — and where the snow —took us. We went Here, There, And Everywhere.

Life has not been kind to Giacobbe Fragomeni. He spent his childhood in the bleak outskirts of Milan, in a cruel environment. An alcoholic father who used to beat his wife and the kids. It didn’t take him long to go down the road to drug addiction. Following the death of his father, sister and mother, this dark tunnel full of misery brought him to utter desperation. But Giacobbe was not just anyone; alone he started his own fight against addiction, beginning to box “in order to lose weight”. Thanks to the devotion and affection of his first trainer, Ottavio Tazzi, Giako built a bright career. “Boxing saved my life.” In 2008, after overcoming more of life’s obstacles, he became Cruiserweight World Champion WBC.

Fitness training, diet, extreme sports: Toni Faller fights the hamster wheel of everyday life and the mid-life crisis. His wife Marianne and daughter Daniela watch the changes with mistrust. They soon feel like they do not know him anymore, while Toni gets more and more confident. It's only a matter of time before it pops.

A documentary film about the Mizrahim, or Jewish community of Iraq.

Röbi has lung cancer and only a few months to live. He does not want chemotherapy or radiation. The film accompanies Röbi on the last metres of his life.

Moments and aspects of the life of a contemporary married couple undergoing a metamorphosis.

A murder, a police raid and a photo of a mysterious girl; a young mother must piece together her twin son's secret romantic life, in order to find out what happened to them.

«Grozny Blues» follows a few people around Grozny, the capital of war-torn Chechnya where daily life is defined by political repression, constricting customs, forced Islamification and the failure to come to terms with recent history. The film revolves around four women who have been fighting for human rights under worsening conditions for many years but get more and more disillusioned with the situation in Putin’s Russia. The building where they work is also home to a Blues Club that is frequented by a group of young people. Having only vague memories of the Chechen wars in the 90s, they try to make sense of the strange things that are happening in their country. In linking the personal and intimate to the political, Nicola Bellucci shows in a dramatic and yet very poetic way what it means to live in a divided society that navigates a no-man’s land between war and peace, repression and freedom, archaic traditions and modern life.

Filmed in high definition 3D, this set brings together the Experience Montreux film plus concert performances from the Montreux Jazz Festival by Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones and the Global Gumbo All-Stars. Experience Montreux, filmed at the 44th Festival in 2010, contains full live tracks by a range of artists that reflects the breadth and eclecticism of the Montreux Jazz Festival. The performances are interspersed with interviews with festival founder Claude Nobs and many of the artists involved and are accompanied by stunning footage of the festival setting, the town of Montreux, Lake Geneva and the Swiss Alps. Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock have both been frequent visitors to Montreux over the years and it s fitting that their performances form a part of this 3D celebration of the magic of the Montreux Jazz Festival.

The impossible and forbidden love between two young peasants, Marthe, beautiful and fierce, and her cousin Théophile, a bastard, born of a rape.

He is young, good-looking and of Arab descent and gets lost amongst the glamour of Paris international jet set.

Alban lives in a ski resort with his mother. Each night, the teenager slips away to meet up with Julien – this boy who curiously has the same name as the hero of the novel Alban is devouring.

In Occupied Athens, a German woman, the wife of a Greek officer, falls in love with a teenage Jewish ice vendor. Love becomes fate: the woman dies and is reborn, living two lives in a world that is rapidly changing.

Jacques asks a public writer to compose love letters for a beautiful stranger that he pretends he has just met.

A young student filmmaker in an attempt to shoot a documentary gets lost in New Orleans. Out of fear of making a mistake, he ends up making hundreds of mistakes.

Documentary about human hair, including its political significance.

Lust follows desire as sure as night follows day, but in these five stories from France, Switzerland, Brazil and Romania, reality takes an unexpected detour, and things turn out a little differently when sunrise comes.

A beat-up camper approaches a snow-covered mountain military check point. A pale sun is rising as a prelude to a chilly morning. The passengers are two old people who are trying to avoid the national draft of their grandson. They hide the kid in a coffin, pretending he's dead. But the commander discovers the young deserter.

A raw, honest look at the relationship between filmmakers, actors, and the characters they create together. Sometimes comical, sometimes infuriating, always fascinating.

Semret a single mom works at a local Zurich hospital, she does everything to ensure a better life for her daughter Joe. When Semret was wrongfully accused at the hospital she stand up for her rights, so as not to lose everything she loves.

A woman and a man encounter each other at the place of final decisions.

Ruth is an eccentric, determined woman who wants control over everything. Even death. So, she goes to Zurich for a tidy, orderly exit. But her chaotic granddaughter Lori gatecrashes, and will not go back home without her. They have an unexpected holiday together.

A serious Swiss melodrama/documentary about abortion, marketed as a sexy exploitation movie in the US. The film contains real medical footage.

A man releases a huge balloon in the dark night… In the south of France, two men lead us on a strange treasure hunt through crisscrossing roads, armed with GPSes and maps. An observational and absurd road movie, where it is a matter of climbing up trees, celestial explosions and mysterious links between men separated by hundreds of kilometres.

Having left England for a romantic escapade in the South of France, Olivier and James invite Caroline along at the very last minute. The trio arrives in a little Provencal village, somewhat cut off from the world. Though everything seems calm between the pool, sunshine and a village visit, Olivier finds himself more and more intrigued by Caroline. A tension of sexual jealousy and possessiveness will then escalade between the three of them.

Young cook Jeanne wants to prevail in the world of the Haute Cuisine; but in this kitchen, blood and sweat are part of every meal.

In the Bernese Alps, the Agassizhorn peak memorialises Louis Agassiz – a controversial 19th-century scientist, who not only named the mountain after himself, but who claimed he had discovered the Ice Age and went on to become one of the century's most virulent, most influential racists.