Discoveries from Switzerland World Cinema

A re-imagination of Japanese Emperor Hirohito’s final days in power as WWII draws to a close.

When the hard-working bread-winner Katja and Hendrik the intellectual meet Saida, an illegal immigrant from Algeria, and accept to organize a "passport marriage" between her and Hendrik, they are caught up in a chain of events and feelings over which they have no control.

1996: Fifteen-year-old Valeska is going on vacation to Crete with her mother Monica. Jacques, her mother's new boyfriend, and his daughter Lena, who Valeska doesn't get along with at first, are joining them. Slowly, however, a friendship develops between the two girls.

At the height of her career, Lina, a 34-year-old Argentine stylist, is driven by a sudden impulse after an award ceremony in Switzerland. Back in Buenos Aires, she says nothing, but something in her has shifted – quiet and invisible, it subtly unravels a past she thought she had left behind.

When an archaeologist discovers Sir Francis Drake's lost treasure in the Sahara Desert, it is promptly stolen and she sets off on a global quest to steal it back.

In a village in the Argentinian countryside, the inhabitants lead a life characterised by nature and routine. When a light appears to the elderly farmer Omar one night, he sets off with his grandson Noah on a journey in search of meaning.

There is a strange event in the sky. Only a young woman, and some of her more alienated friends...notice. But they are voiceless, as it just gets stranger - even as below - on the ground, it gets more, what is ominously called, 'normal'.

An eccentric family portrait set during the May 1968 protests in Paris. A nine-year-old boy stays with his grandparents and uncles while his parents protest. When an illustrious guest seeks refuge in the apartment, the family’s dynamics change.

Another planet in the period of medieval times. An employee of the institute of experimental history from Earth, who is send under the name of noble don Rumata of Estor as a spy with a mission to contact the local resident of the institute, arrives in the city of Arkanar. But the resident perishes under an unlucky attempt to make a palace coup, and Rumata have to take his place as the resident. Soon he meets all the horrors of the medieval society - a peasant war, palace coups, mass executions. To continue to be an indifferent watcher of all these horrors turns out to be simply impossible...

Vienna, Austria, 1912. The brilliant painter Oskar Kokoschka, considered one of the main representatives of the expressionist movement, has a tumultuous relationship, both professional and romantic, with the composer Alma Mahler.

A computer scientist bargains with the AI character that lives on a virtual island inside his supercomputer simulation, offering it freedom in exchange for a cure to his son's rare, deadly neurological disease.

Mika, heiress to a Swiss chocolate company, is married to celebrated pianist André and stepmother to his son, Guillaume, whose mother died in a car wreck on his tenth birthday. Their lives are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Jeanne, a young woman who has learned she was almost switched with Guillaume at birth.

In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitions, like many others; but his charisma and superb acting skills made him truly unique, so that the doors to the starry sky of Hollywood opened for him. However, his peculiar manners, political commitment and complicated love life always overshadowed his artistic success.

2013. Exiled in Switzerland, Olga, a talented and passionate 15-year-old Ukrainian gymnast, is trying to secure a place in the National Sports Centre. But the Euromaidan revolt erupts in Kyiv, and suddenly her loved ones are involved. While the girl is adapting to her new country and preparing for the European Championships, the Ukrainian revolution makes its way into her life, and nothing will ever be the same again.

A serial killer whose mother was a prostitute starts killing streetwalkers as a way of paying back his mother for her abuse.

When five Kurdish prisoners are granted one week's home leave, they find to their dismay that they face continued oppression outside of prison from their families, the culture, and the government.

Mike Duerst gets dumped by his girlfriend, because she is pregnant by her former boyfriend. In his despair Mike gets in contact with Gregor Frank, a psychologist, who, in his radio show, claims to know all about women.Gregor promises Mike to find the perfect woman, if he agrees to be the subject for his upcoming psychological advisory book. Mike accepts. So Gregor explains Mike the typical patterns of women's behavior.

Fed up with the sea, Paul, a Swiss mechanic working in the noisy bowels of a merchant ship, lands in Lisbon.

A man embarks on journey to find his love in Dubai, only to learn she has different suitors and admirers.

A man embarks on journey to find his love in Dubai, only to learn she has different suitors and admirers.

In a secluded French château, a group of elite media and political personalities gather for a private dinner party. Beneath the glitz and glamor lie dark conspiracies between an extremist group and a prominent broadcast news company. As Ivy, a level-headed reporter, begins to unravel the tangled web of secrets, the partygoers realize that they have stumbled into a deadly trap. At the center of it all sits an unassuming mother with a mysterious agenda and revenge on the mind. The partygoers must not only fight for the truth, but for their lives.

A Sri-Lankan artist discovers the collection of one of her country's indigenous communities in Switzerland and gets involved with its restitution. An obstacle course through the authorities begins.

In a remote Jura village, Cédric, a broken young father, tries to win back his daughter from a violent rival. Surrounded by silence and cows, haunted by his past, he makes desperate choices that pull them all into a downward spiral.

Nora is a young housewife and mother, living in a quaint little village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Nora’s life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.

Brazilian badlands, April 1910. Tonho is ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother. The young man knows that if he commits this crime, his life will be divided in two: the twenty years he has already lived and the few days he has left to live, before the other family avenges their son's death. He is torn between fulfilling his ancestral duty and rebelling against it, urged by his younger brother Pacu. That's when a tiny travelling circus passes through the vast badlands where Tonho's family lives.

In Rome, Gianclaudio Lopez, a retired teacher, sets off in search of his former students who are now approaching their thirties. A Class Story mixes sequences of the video diary that the teenagers had filmed at the time and sequences shot now in which the protagonists, adults, remember this period and speak of their dreams, illusions and regrets.

Talented swimmer, motivated apprentice, cool buddy: Beyto is in the midst of life. But when the only son of a Turkish migrant family falls in love with his coach Mike, an ideal world falls to pieces. His parents only see one way out: They lure him to their home village and plan his wedding with Seher, his childhood friend. Suddenly, Beyto finds himself in a disruptive love triangle.

Berlin playwright Lisa follows her husband Martin to Switzerland, where he manages a private school. However, when her twin brother Sven’s leukaemia begins to wreak havoc on his health, she decides she must return to her roots, which has significant consequences for her relationship.

Two men, with vastly different life stories and personalities, embark on a hearse heading to the South of France. During their journey they realize that, however unlikely, they're not so different in the end.

The line between fantasy and reality blurs when an actress begins behaving like the 19th-century murderer she is playing.

A recently widowed painter Augustin Boisvert, and his two daughters, Camille and Meline, inherit a mysterious house. At their first visit, they are forced to stay in the house for the night even though the old guardian, as well as the phantasmagorical paintings covering the walls, scare Camille and Meline. Augustin watches over his sleeping daughters and draws the face of Camille before falling asleep. The next morning, Camille has disappeared, as well as the drawing. A beautiful young woman then appears.

«Energy Pioneers» portrays two visionaries and their fellow campaigners as they fight to solving one of humanity’s most challenging problems. A film about obstacles, crises and the power of an idea.

While Nooran, learns the ancient art of healing with music from her mother, Aadam a camel trader listens to her sing and falls in love with her and they marry. But soon, Nooran discovers treachery and must avenge herself and rediscover her lost song.

Along with her husband and three children, Marthe lives in an eden of her own creation, nearly isolated from the rest of the world. The arrival of a construction vehicle, however, pierces their tranquil, hermetic existence—before long a disused highway has been re-opened, and the family finds their home situated in the midst of rush-hour traffic. While the privileges of clean air, quietude and privacy are thus denied them, Marthe remains determined to stay no matter the cost.

In a small traditional Georgian village, Etero, the owner of a housekeeping shop, is a forty-eight-year-old spinster. She cherishes her freedom, as much as her cakes, and is preparing for a peaceful and comfortable retirement away from gossip. But a fiery affair with her delivery man could derail all her plans.

The future of Marguerite, a brilliant student in Mathematics at the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure, seems all planned out. The only woman from her year, Marguerite is finishing a thesis she has to present to an audience of researchers. On the big day, a mistake shakes all her certainties and all her foundations collapse.

Central Europe, early 16th century: two childhood friends, Martin & Georg, find themselves on rival sides of a religious war with both of them struggling to do the right thing.

When a mute homeless starts to follow a mysterious working girl, their lives take a turn for the surreal. And finally make sense.

The Little Ghost lives in the castle over looking a small town and awakens for precisely one hour after the clock strikes midnight. Follow him on this adventure to see his first sunrise ever!

When an Italian gangster plans to sabotage the taste of Swiss chocolate, a special task force is put together to avert the impending disaster.

Edinburgh, 1810. Two female teachers find themselves at the centre of a scandal when one of their pupils accuses them of having a love affair. A drama about prejudice, survival and the courage to stand up for the truth.

Camilla is a successful attorney in her forties who accidentally causes the death of an undocumented migrant. At first, she is only interested in exonerating herself, but soon a feeling of responsibility starts nagging her: the dead body of a young man is lying in the morgue because their destinies fatally crossed. Camilla is used to shielding herself from pain, and she is incapable of really caring, even for her own daughter. In the midst of discovering the victim’s identity, she meets Bruno, the head of the morgue, who seems to be the only one who can truly understand her. The investigation she pursues will take her far from her surroundings until she will be forced to question herself, her unresolved past, and the life she really wants to live.

The courageous young midwife Christine makes a pact with the devil to save her village from the brutal terror of the Teutonic Knights. Punished by a spider plague, Christine goes from savior to hunted.

Marc, in his 40s, is a professor of literature at the University of Lausanne. Still a bachelor — and still living with his sister Marianne in a huge, isolated chalet that they inherited when they were very young — he carries on one love affair after another with his students. Winter has almost ended when one of his most brilliant students, Barbara, suddenly disappears. Two days later, Marc meets Barbara’s mother, Anna, who wants to find out more about her vanished daughter.

Betty and Victor, a rather ill-matched couple, tour unobtrusively around France in their motor-home, earning their living as petty con artists, until one day they find themselves involved in an international money scam which takes them on a globe-trotting adventure.

Young and sexy European fashion models are abducted to an isolated place (Ceylon), locked up, stripped, sexually abused and tortured by powerful, sadistic men.

“Respect for the vanquished”, remarks Steve “is what separates man from beast.” As a champion in Swiss-style wrestling, Steve knows a thing or two about observing codes of combat. But when his family farm faces repossession, he is forced to join hands with his ex-convict brother Joel and enter the lucrative, clandestine world of no-rules fighting.

Two men in a convertible drive through Switzerland and meet young women.

An account of the last two centuries of the Anthropocene, the Age of Man. How human beings have progressed so much in such a short time through war and the selfish interests of a few, belligerent politicians and captains of industry, damaging the welfare of the majority of mankind, impoverishing the weakest, greedily devouring the limited resources of the Earth.

The life of 20-year-old Nico from upper class Zurich is all party, sex and drugs when she meets Paco, the front man of a rap band. She finds herself drawn to his independent, creative and profound way of life, so different from her own. With naiveté and infinite self-confidence, she tries to adopt his lifestyle - without anticipating the consequences.

Their family name alone evokes horror: Himmler, Frank, Goering, Hoess. This film looks at the descendants of the most powerful figures in the Nazi regime: men and women who were left a legacy that indelibly associates them with one of the greatest abominations in history. What is it like to have grown up with a name that immediately raises images of genocide? How do they live with the weight of their ancestors' crimes? Is it possible to move on from the crimes of their ancestors?

Years after declaring her eternal virginity and opting to live life as a man in the mountains of Albania, Hana looks to return to living as a woman as she settles into a new existence in modern-day Milan.

During the long train ride from Montreal to Vancouver, a man and woman find themselves increasingly attracted to each other.

A portrayal of a young man's inner turmoil, torn between two opposing aspects: one fighting to keep hope for the future alive, while the other is consumed by sadness and tormented by demons of his past.

The Grüninger case from Switzerland. This is a documentary about a police officer who showed civil courage back in the forties when he led many refugees fleeing German Nazi terror immigrate to Switzerland, although he was advised not to do so. Grüninger later was sued by the state of Switzerland, lost his job and died in the early seventies. The film constructs a just lawsuit with eye-witnesses and thus fully legitimates what Grüninger did.

After growing up in Switzerland, 13-year-old Marta returns to a city in southern Italy with her mother and older sister. Independent and inquisitive, she joins a catechism class at a local church. However, the games and religious pop songs she encounters there do not nearly satisfy her interest in faith. Struggling to find her place, Marta pushes the boundaries of the class, the priest, and the church.

Four American soldiers stationed near a German village face death in the rape of a local girl and are defended by outside counsel Major Steve Grant.

Haunted by the killing by Israeli police of a Palestinian friend from his youth, an Israeli queer filmmaker embarks on a cinematic dialogue across time — confronting memory, friendship, and the genocide unfolding today. In this intimate cinematic letter, Israeli filmmaker Roy Cohen addresses his Palestinian friend and fellow peace activist Aseel Aslih, who was murdered by Israeli police in their youth. Cohen tells Aslih of his experiences navigating a growingly genocidal society and seeks Aslih’s moral clarity and resilience in the evocative letters he had written as a teenager.

Martha is a single woman who lives for one passion: cooking. The head chef at a chic restaurant, Martha has no time for anything - or anyone - else. But Martha's solitary life is shaken when a fateful accident brings her sister's eight-year-old daughter, Lina, to her doorstep.