Discoveries from Switzerland World Cinema

A young art student from Switzerland arrives for six months in Tel Aviv. Through drawing he will learn to analyse, understand and open himself to this contrasted environment.

Annelie was once a well-frequented hotel in Munich. When guests stopped coming, it was closed. The building was then converted into a homeless shelter, which was supposed to be a temporary solution but became a permanent fixture for ten years. During this time, a diverse group of junkies, alcoholics, petty criminals, and other homeless people considered "unplaceable" by the authorities settled there. This world is suddenly turned upside down when the city decides to demolish the entire building. Max turns to drugs, while the others try everything they can to ensure the continued existence of their home.

Defying the idea that ballet is an art form steeped in the history of the wealthy white elite, this documentary captures the dreams of two black children from the Favela in Brazil, who, despite constant prejudice and doubt, are both determined to beat the odds and follow their dreams to use dancing as an escape rarely found in their tough day to day lives.

A young filmmaker is researching the subject of paid sex. In a café in Zurich, she meets a woman her age who tells her about everyday life in the apartment brothels. Undistorted realities from Swiss online sex forums echo like a shiver across the building facades and seep into the waters of the city.

Hector comes back home after being away for one year. As he looks in the rooms for his father, his childhood memories are awakened...

Staila Crudanta (Falling Star) tells about two moments in Curdins and Leas life: Encounter and separation. Lea visits her grandparents who celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary in a small restaurant in the mountains.

Troubled by his own reoccurring transformations, a restless backpacker seeks his place in the world. Through a mysterious encounter in a concrete building in the midst of a barren swampland, he hopes to have finally found such a place.

A former CIA agent James is hiding out in Switzerland with secret files. He lives a successful life as a businessman, with a villa, fancy cars, and a loving family. But his wealth is only a facade, and his past catches up with him. His daughter is kidnapped again. James hires his bodyguards to help him find his daughter. It comes to a big showdown in the mountains of Adelboden.

"You have to have diesel or hydraulic oil in your blood for this job, otherwise you can't do it!" Dust in the eyes, noise in the ears, and passion in the heart: that's part of the job of an excavator operator in the demolition business. How excavators become ballerinas, and why size does matter after all.

Portrait of swiss based Club "Café Mokka" and its club manager MC Anliker

Erwan is back, He has settled down and is done with guns and crime. He now lives peacefully with Sandra, they have a child together. When his friend Harry gets out of prison, Erwan will soon be tempted by one last heist - for the fun of it and to get some college money for his young boy, Gordon.

Stop motion by Maya Galluzzi.

The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 is narrated with brief allusions. Inspired by a mural on historic ceramic tiles, a poetic metaphor is developed about decline and rebirth and accompanied by appropriate guitar music.

Yet again, a bear and a rat are out to make a lot of money - this time with art. During a tour of investigation, they find a corpse in a gallery and, hoping it will prove to be a means of access to the worlds of culture, action and finance, they take it along with them. However the desired effect is not forthcoming and they become involved in questions and observations on the subject of art and crime. The rat tries to solve the case himself; to him there is no distinction between artist and detective. After a narrow escape from a murder attempt, the two animals join forces once again and, now sadder and wiser, they resolve to improve - something that appears to be far from easy. But at the depths of despair they discover a system of order in the chaos of the world, which encourages them to venture into the area of philosophy. From here, they proceed into undreamed-of insights and flights of fancy.

Star pianists Martha Argerich and Maria João Pires join British conductor Daniel Harding and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva's Victoria Hall to perform two major works by Mozart and Mahler. Programme: W. A Mozart: Concerto for Two Pianos in E flat major Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major

A generation portrait in which we follow the lives of five international economy students from their studies at the University of St. Gallen over the course of five years: during their academic education, in their private lives and the first years of their professional careers.

Philip, Lynn, Hussein and Shammy, young LGBT Ugandans, are fighting for survival. Staying in their country, where religious oppressions and discriminations prevail, endangers their lives. Then, their latest hope is to leave it all behind and experience a long and painful exile.

A moral aunt and a poisonous civil servant want to restore order in paradise. However, paradise is not a heavenly place, but a den of iniquity that urgently needs to be cleaned up. A perfect job for Schaeppi and Mylanek.

Multi-instrumentalist, Trombone Shorty is the kind of player who comes along maybe once in a generation. His new album, Backatown is a mix of rock, funk, jazz, hip-hop and soul. He had to create his own name to describe his signature sound: Supafunkrock!

An animated documentary about sex between people who are not in love. This film centres on Judith, who recalls experiences with disabled clients and the act of sex outside of a traditional romantic relationship.

Thirty female prisoners share the convicts’ ward of Tuilière Prison at Lonay. More than half of them have one or more children being raised elsewhere: with a sister, in a foster family, or – further away still – in their countries of origin. In portraying some of these women, the film sheds light on these mothers and the bond that ties them to their children.

1997. Tiger, a Serb living in Germany is best friends with an illegal Albanian refugee, Kiki. A natural hustler, Kiki sweet-talks his way into odd jobs and women's hearts. The bond between the two men appears unbreakable, but the combination of Tiger's malicious father, who despises Albanians, and Kiki's new German girlfriend conspires to draw them apart. Then fate steps in and Kiki is deported, but the final straw comes when Tiger's father threatens to send Tiger to fight in the Balkans.

Shot over six weeks in December 1971, and January 1972, the film consisted of interviews with Protestants, Catholics, politicians, and some soldiers, combined with TV news clips of bombings and violence. The deaths of four individuals formed the central focus of the film, which Ophüls described as ‘an old, middle-aged, humanistic, social-democratic attempt to give people an idea that life after all is not that cheap’. The BBC refused to transmit the completed film on the grounds that it was ‘too pro-Irish’ (Sunday Times, 5 Nov. 1972). (via http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/media/docs/freespeech.htm)

Live performance from the Grand Théâtre de Genève, February 25 2016.

For the Verbier Festival's 18th edition, the rising piano star Khatia Buniatishvili gained the attention of the audience. The first concert she performed at the Festival was Rachmaninov's Piano concerto No. 3. Some days later, in the Church of Verbier, she gave a recital including works by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. This film presents her best at Verbier Festival 2011.

A caricature of people who cannot understand each other despite being in love. This film was part of a portrait of Othmar Schoeck, produced by the German Swiss Television music department.

Based on Music and Songs by Franz Schubert

A little girl meets a guy on a deserted beach and plays with him.

Fifteen years ago Nikola left Serbia to follow his heart to Switzerland. Since then his life is shared between two countries and three women: his mother Dida, his grandmother and his wife. His mother has learning disabilities and has always been dependent on grandmother. As grandmother is getting older, Belgrade is now calling Nikola back home. How can he help his mother live a life of independence without losing his own?

What’s up with love? Can it still be found or is it a utopian dream? What keeps a couple together and where does desire take us? In its search for clues, the film comes upon two completely different couples: a first love and a last love. One begins unexpectedly via Internet, the other culminates in a shared dream of many years in Portland, Oregon. Meanwhile, Eva Illouz and Sven Hillenkamp discerningly crack the code of the impossible character of love, the findings of which the two couples discount.

Old Grotzenbauer runs an industrial livestock and chicken farm on his property. His son and wife are shocked by the animal cruelty that comes with profit-maximized animal husbandry. Grotzenbauer himself becomes increasingly dependent on an unscrupulous feed supplier. And then the ventilation system in the barn breaks down...

Archival footage of a friend’s week-end on the beach encounter the sound of distant memories : the rock band, the pre-sixties flowerpower movement, a feeling of carefreeness and freedom… it was the 1950s in the United states of America. The now aged protagonists share their memories and thoughts about a remote youth, that some still can feel. In Loving Memory of the Future is an essay on memory and the (un-)truth of images.

​In a sterile, white room, a young applicant meets an indifferent boss. What starts as a common job interview quickly turns into a surreal negotiation about morality and daily routines when it becomes clear that disposing of 'rejects' is part of the company's standard procedure. 'Vorgang 402' is a minimalist look at human adaptability in an absurd working world.

Naima, a 46-year-old Venezuelan, lives in precarious conditions in Basel and, after many years in the low-wage sector, she secures a traineeship in nursing. However, her happiness collides with a harsh reality: patients love her compassionate humour, but her colleagues perceive her as lacking professional distance. When she fails her internship, her world falls apart.

In a town near Calais that looks like the Wild West, big-hearted 50-year-old Lydie shelters Zimako, an unruly, paperless migrant from Togo.

Dihya reveals her world, her secrets, her stories. She reigns in this dehumanized world, like a queen, a warrior.

Climate change, the upheavals and socioeconomic inequalities caused by the the world economic powers’ control and excessive exploitation of spaces and bodies in his country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, are David Shongo’s points of departure for this film. Using the photographic archives of Hans Himmelheber (1938-39) and the hunting songs of Léon Verbeek as timeless devices and bearers of testimony, the film questions the psychoepistemology of globalization and its strategic device, technology.

Concert filmed at the Event Halle at Messe Basel on November 3, 2017 during the Baloise Session Festival.

Right after the first Iraq war, the filmmaker visits his family in Iraq. He tries to reconstruct the war from different points of view, all depicted on the same screen at the same time: U.S. airplanes dropping bombs, his parents fixated on the television, and the family welcoming him back.

After a young boy dies of meningitis, Napoko Diarrha (Yaméogo) is accused of eating his soul because of a local sexist tradition. While this happens, her husband feels disgraced that Diarrha resists the idea of marrying off their daughter, so he exactes his revenge by spreading a dangerous rumor that would probably get her killed. Because of this, Diarrha's fate falls into the village elder's hands. When she finds out she will go trial, she decides to flee to the nearest town, Ouagadougou, before that can take place. After successfully leaving her village, Diarrha's age causes her health to decline, while her daughter grows up. Some time later, her daughter decides to travel to Ouagadougou, in search of her missing mother. Once they are reconnected, they attempt to escape from their male-dominated society.

Leaving for his dream job, a satellite technician keeps solitude at bay by constantly texting with his old friends. After neglecting his duties a satellite leaves its orbit which causes the world's network to collapse.

Because he does not like the idea of Jeanne leaving for a three-week vacation with her friends, Michel locks himself in the bathroom. Jeanne and Michel have been married for 50 years…

White sand, turquoise blue water. For decades, a chemical plant has been discharging its wastewater into the sea, transforming the nearby landscape into a white paradise. A voice collects memories along the beach and records them on postcards. As the shadow of the factory grows longer and traces no longer fade, she questions the linearity of her own horizon. Slowly, a toxic scent spreads and she realizes that her image of paradise is contaminated. A whale becomes stranded.

The story of a great friendship between Bruno Balz and Michael Jary. The most successful duo in schlager and film music has shaped German-language popular culture for five decades. The wild twenties, then cinema glamour and Gestapo imprisonment, new beginnings, and swinging sixties - their songs are still alive today.

The prisoner Klara Wendel was supposed to be deported from west to east Switzerland. But strange incidents occur during her transport, and all her companions disappear. Klara is found wearing a nun’s habit. To get to the heart of the matter, a tribunal is hastily set up in a barn. The judges want to find out how Klara has managed to escape and why she’s dressed as a nun. On trial by men, Klara somehow manages to take over and become the director of both the trial and the film.

A woman finds puzzle pieces in her apartment, but this is a game she does not want to play.

Following disastrous floods, a vast construction project is in the process of revitalizing the Rhone by removing the concrete straitjacket, and instead enlarging the river's bed to promote river life. The filmmaker follows the development of this unusually inclusive project through its diverse protagonists, including hydrobiologists, fishermen, farmers, engineers and concerned citizens. Their divergent concerns permit a fuller and unbiased understanding of the complexity of such a project. As a result, this engaging and lyrical film is a journey that prompts a universal questioning of our past and future relationship with nature and territory.

A year in Lara Gut’s universe, from the victory of the Alpine Ski World Cup Overall title in 2016 to the comeback after an injury at the peak of her career. A documentary about a young woman and a champion trying to find her way amidst self-fulfillment and public expectations.

Because of an appearing psychogenic Tinnitus a twenty-something youngster is forced to rethink his egoistic, urban lifestyle.

On their way to a remote vacation spot, a young couple witnesses a fatal hunting accident. Far from civilization and cut off from any help, they start to question the hunters' intentions.

24 frames per second make a film. 13 moving museums in 13 minutes result in a turbulent invitation to visit these 13 museums in Bern. (Swiss Film Center Catalogue 1972)

Documentary film.