Discoveries from Switzerland World Cinema

A mad scientist named Psöicheldoc has developped a serum that can bring the dead back to life. His evil plan to conquer the world with an army of zombies by his side gets suddenly interrupted when a group of young metalheads decide to make a stand. And so the "Brunstelwald-Massacre" begins...

Struggling with the breakdown of a relationship, Leo moves back to a dilapidated 'city of tomorrow' to live with his belligerent grandfather and his father Rafael, a disillusioned engineer who once worked in Cuba's now-abandoned nuclear program.

An examination of a Palestinian village on the outskirts of Jerusalem that is slowly being enclosed by the Israeli apartheid wall.

Stock market magnate and billionaire Victor d'Oron organizes an experiment to test his unusual theory. He believes that three people on Earth form a "unit" or "cluster."

The camera accompanies Lukas Bärfuss for five years to various theatre productions, readings and research trips. On the road and at his home, it becomes clear who is behind the often sharp and pointed texts.

Bernard Rambert, “Red Beni”, is one of Switzerland's best-known and most controversial defence lawyers. What conclusions can a person who has spent his entire life fighting for radical change through legal means draw?

Coelio desperately tries to win the heart of Marianne, the wife of Judge Claudio. On a bridge, he wants to commit suicide, but he runs into his friend Octave, who is returning from a carnival - drunk as usual. Octave agrees to act as matchmaker for Coelio.

With the complicity of a painter, an elderly man recovers youth and manages to wander through paintings.

Evangelical Christians are calling out for a second sexual revolution: chastity. As a counter-movement of the attitudes and practices of today's culture, one in six girls in the US has vowed to remain 'unsoiled' until marriage. But the seven children of the Wilson family, founders of the Purity Ball, take this concept of purity of body and mind one step further; even their first kiss will be at the altar. For two years, the filmmakers follow the Wilson offspring as they prepare for their fairytale vision of romance and marriage and seek out their own prince and princess spouses. In the process, a broader theme emerges: how the religious right is grooming a young generation of virgins to embody an Evangelically-grounded Utopia in America.

In the remote Norwegian town of Longyearbyen, just 1000 kilometres from the North Pole, politicians from around the world came to celebrate the opening of the world’s first global seed bank. After years of difficult negotiations and searching for the right spot, this was deemed to be the safest place on earth. Eventually, 4,5 million seed samples will be stored in this »Doomsday Vault« and ensure the continued existence of biodiversity. But is the dream of global food security achievable? By 2050 temperatures worldwide are expected to rise by at least 2 degrees. This will result in a 30 per cent drop in production of food crops. By this time global food demand will have doubled. How will we feed the world? In SEED WARRIORS we hear from the scientists behind this ambitious project and examine the reality of the fight against hunger.

When two young people from different cultural backgrounds meet, it's not just the awkwardness of a first date that comes into play; their heads are already filled with warning signals about what they should and shouldn't do, what they are and aren't allowed to do. Cem trains at Cross Fit. Aline as a dancer. They both measure how many calories they consume. They also have in common that sex before marriage is frowned upon. And they are under a lot of pressure from their parents. That's where the similarities end and the problems begin.

What does it even mean to superlike someone? In this four-minute chamber play, a nameless protagonist prepares dinner for a date who almost certainly won’t show up. She speaks her thoughts out loud for the first time, whispering to the food as if it were her absent lover—gently at first, then with growing violence. Between chopped vegetables and unanswered messages, a kitchen transforms into a stage for self-determination, desire, and silent brutality. A film about miscommunication, modern dating, and the absurd poetry of drifting between never seeing each other again and maybe forever.

At his first practice with the new football team, Jonas meets his teammate Niklas. After a party, they end up at Niklas' house. Cuddled up together, the two friends fall asleep. Their closeness does not go unnoticed by their team. The comments from his teammates unsettle Jonas. His relationship with his girlfriend Lara is also in question. He is unable to explain to her what is going on inside him. He encounters Niklas on the football field. An argument erupts. Their team wins the next game, but their distance seems insurmountable.

In the 18th century in Savoy, the friendship of two poor children who are part of a team of chimney sweeps.

Based on a series of events over the course of one day, Oscar learns that he doesn’t have very long to live. Time has passed without him having noticed or, rather, accepted this fact. Following this brutal realisation and moments filled with doubt and loneliness, Oscar notices that he isn’t really alone.

Hansel and Gretel is a Swiss short fairy tale movie by Rudolf Jugert from 1971. It is based on Grimm’s fairy tale Hansel and Gretel.

When Khatera, a 23-year-old Afghan woman, forces her father to stand trial after a lifetime of sexual abuse, she risks her family, freedom, and personal safety to expose a judicial system that incriminates the very women who seek protection.

A single mother in a custody battle finds an unexpected ally in her reclusive landlord-neighbor.

After his mother is rushed to the hospital, her young son Moritz finds a new home with a gay couple in the neighborhood.

This collection also includes a mix of short films by various directors. Linard, Marius und Königin Po by Karin Heberlein, Pixi Dixi, Anette Carle, Isabelle Favez, Maja Gehrig, Linard Bardill, 2014 will be released together with GSFA and filmkids.

In the film, Klopfenstein portrays a metaphorical renovation of the burned-down church of his past in and with cinema. As tools, he merely has his computer and files of his own films, as well as masses of faces long gone and places razed from memory. One drifts deliciously with Klopfenstein through a super-edit of his own oeuvre, removed from established modes of this type of filmmaking and instead functioning in an intimate and poignant expression, where fleeting gestures can unleash avalanches of unexpected memories.

Promotional short film to reveal the potential of the new Paillard-Bolex camera.

Samer lives in Ramallah in the West Bank. His family lives in Gaza, one hour away. They have not seen each other for six years. When Mustafa went for a visit to Gaza in 2006, he was 18 years old. He was never allowed to return – his mother Hekmat has been fighting to see him again for seven years now. Two families torn apart. They share the same “crime”: being registered with a Gaza address in their Identity Cards. Under Israeli rule, they are considered “infiltrators” in their own country. Their lives have turned into a permanent struggle. Parents can only talk to their sons on the phone; sisters can only see their brothers on the internet – mothers and their children fighting to be together at last…

A grieving mother orders a robotic replica of her deceased son, who soon realizes the limits of his existence.

Celebrated Chinese couturier Guo Pei is perhaps best known for designing the brilliant gold gown Rihanna wore to the Met Ball in 2015. But Guo’s quest to be recognized by the gatekeepers of Paris haute couture goes beyond the red carpet and taps into global power dynamics and the perpetual tension between art and commerce.

A reflective cinematic essay intertwines philosophical dialogues—between a filmmaker and philosopher—episodes from Vladimir Nabokov’s life and literature, and imaginative reconstructions to probe the very texture of time.

"In my film I suggest that there is no greater mystery than that of the protagonists. War and Love are simply equated for what they are; the aftermath is inevitable, and a normal human condition, for which like the ancients one can only have pity and understanding. In this lies the mystery. All else is irrelevant. That there are other sub-currents of equal power in The Mysteries goes without saying; and, those who are capable of the numerous visual visitations and annunciations which the film offers them will realize what is the Ultimate Mystery of my work."

Frustrated with the hopeless search for professional therapy, Martha looks for help with a spiritual self-help group. When this group turns out to be an autoaggressive cult, she needs to decide whether she gives in to her fate, or flies home.

Alone and with no roof over her head, Granny knits a house and two little children out of her wool. Her children are so different from the norm that the school, the entire village and even the authorities reject them. Discouraged, Granny unravels everthing.

Set between Hong Kong, London and Frankfurt, this is the intimate portrait of five women working in the highest spheres of finance. Regularly stigmatised as “dragon-women”, they reveal the survival mechanisms they use and the personal battles they fight in this ultra-patriarchal professional field where they represent a tiny minority.

Christina is in her mid-twenties and in a sensual and playful relationship with her boyfriend Joel. Though it irritates her when Joel takes erotic photos of her during sex, she gladly submits to it, for him. After all, they’re not teenagers anymore. Christina eventually starts to question her trust in Joel when she sees him tipsily showing a photo on his phone to their mutual friend Tanner. Christina’s doubts alone suffice to put the couple’s relationship to the test.

TRAILERS unites the most personal and experimental aspects of underground filmmaking with a scope that is as cosmically vast as a science fiction epic. Rashidi’s ongoing exploration into the nature of cinema sees a group of characters adrift in space, each locked into their own sexual rituals while a cataclysm of universal proportions unfolds. Humanity has become a mysterious burlesque show for alien eyes: the gaze of the film camera. This visionary spectacle uses multiple formats and visual textures in weaving an erotic anti-narrative suspended in its own space and time.

Young South Africans from all walks of life begin their student experience at the elite University of Stellenbosch. They try to navigate between personal growth, cultural differences and a past that has not been forgotten.

Carlos’ American dream is trapped in the labyrinth of the U.S. administration which refuses to legally recognise him. He arrived from Mexico as a child, yet he has been living in Chicago for 29 years.

Minisplatter

A three-part documentary about four young men who were active members of the Zurich youth movement in the early 1980s and died tragically as a result of “accidents” with the involvement of the police. The exuberant Dani and Michi stole a motorbike to go on a joyride; a police car gave chase and caused their fatal crash. Renato, a young junkie raised in orphanages, was shot by the police while driving a stolen car. Max, an innocent bystander at a youth demonstration, was clubbed on the head by a police officer, and later died of complications caused by his head injuries. Taken together, these three incidents reflect the tense and violent atmosphere of the time and the conflict between repressive authority and a young generation desperate for freedom

The allotment gardens on the outskirts of the city of Zurich provide hundreds of unpropertied men and women with a home which they are unable to find in the impersonal rented blocks in which they live. The gardens represent their hobby, their freedom and their living space, which exists side by side with hard work. They cannot however own these "homes" and the film shows the chronicle of the events which took place in 1976 - 77 when construction of the Zurich wholesale market hall destroyed 150 gardens and made many people "homeless". This portrait of a group is complemented by the stories of three individuals.

When Masahiro returns to his hometown of Tokyo with his wife, he's suddenly plagued by inexplicable feelings of guilt and nightmares from a time long past. Then a mysterious man advises him to perform an eerie ritual in the infamous Aokigahara forest. For Masahiro, a dramatic journey into the past begins, to his innermost spiritual abysses.

Serguei is a 50 year old railway worker, seemingly cheerful and sociable. But within the intimacy of his gloomy apartment, he lives a terrible loneliness that he tries to make up for by watching funny shows on television. When it breaks down, he tries to repair it and overhears a couple’s argument in the apartment next door. Driven by a growing fascination for the woman’s voice, he starts to vicariously share her everyday life, till the day he walks through her door…

May 68 in Paris filmed by Alain Tanner, then director for Swiss Television. Images of Nanterre (92), the Sorbonne (Paris 5e), and the theater of the Odeon (Paris 6th), meetings, speeches and events, are accompanied by a commentary that recounts the events of the month of may.

"Film shots and sound recordings over the course of one month in a remote mountain village in Liguria. I do not work with the illusion of the synchronisation of image and sound, but with the idea that these 2 dimensions do exist as realities independent of each other, and as such do in fact emerge in our consciousness. The world in Villatalla is not showcased but simply lived. The few remaining inhabitants pursue the few remaining work. Social life happens in a beautiful slowness of the present." Jeannette Muñoz.

How would you feel if the state sold the mountain above your village to a big multinational, your country's beautiful islands, its beaches or your great monuments? Strangled by debt, governments and public administrations all over Europe act like any indebted family: they try not only to reduce costs, but attempt to replenish their coffers by putting their most valued family possessions on the market. More often than not, this includes part of the countries' historical and natural heritage: castles, islands, mountains, beaches, palaces, ancient arenas and archaeological sites. But who really owns these properties? Aren't they our common heritage, our history that will end up in private or corporate hands and will no longer be accessible to all? Or is the private sector more efficient in managing these properties? And if so, who decides on the best deal? Are there democratic proceedings for the sale of our common good? The people of Europe want accountability.

After the coup in Uruguay in 1973, thousands of intellectuals and artists fled the country. The filmmaker’s father was among them and left for Europe. After his passing, she came upon some Super 8 movies and audio files he had recorded. Through this archive, she started building a new family story trying to reveal and understand the silent pain of exile.

The featherless nightingale sings in the forest. His birdsong soothes the little bear who is having trouble sleeping, calms the squabbling squirrels and entertains the pair of swans swimming in the pond.

Hanna is searching for a painting dedicated to her by her late grandfather, Pavel, who was a painter. But an 11-year-old boy appears unexpectedly at her grandfather’s studio and claims to know where the painting is.

The portrait of Eberhard Fischer, a Swiss ethnographer and art historian whose life has been devoted to documenting artistic practices across cultures, from mask carvers in Africa to painters in India. His work led to enduring collaborations, including one with filmmaker Amit Dutta. Drawing on archival footage and memory, the film reflects on a long creative friendship.

Inefficient Joy is an experimental ski film that explores the paradox of devoting so much time and energy to something as fleeting as the moments we pursue throughout the winter. In doing so, it questions why we do this and reveals the inexplicable joy that skiing brings.

When an ex-private like Frankie is forced to take on hitman contracts, it's a sign. Times are tough for him. His journey through the underworld in search of his victim will take him far, far too far for his liking. Frankie goes to the other side of the stage and discovers the truth: he's just a plasticine puppet.

Faced with the death of her sister, a young woman must honour the pact they made.

A hamlet in Finland's sprawling tundra. It became the second home of Emmental's Hans Ulrich Schwaar. He lives here with his friend and host, Sami Iisakki-Matias Syväjärvi, owner of the largest reindeer herd in Finland. The reindeer and the rhythm of nature determine daily life. Peter Ramseier has captured this life and the friendship between two men from different cultures in superb, poetic images.

Xinyuan films in her personal essay film Jet Lag is her trip from Vienna to China. The hazmat suits on the aeroplane and the layers of tape sealing off each room in the quarantine hotel conjure up images of crime scenes or medical thrillers, although once she does gymnastics on the bed, the mood immediately shifts.

For many years, the Swiss photographer Jean-Claude Wicky captured the world of Bolivian miners in photographs. When he discovered how strongly they reacted to his pictures, he decided to make a film. Black-and-white photographs alternate with film sequences, in which the miners talk about the harsh conditions of their everyday lives, while also rendering visible their pride, dignity, culture and dynamic traditions. Every day is night is first and foremost a testimonial of profoundly sincere human encounters based on respect, generosity and gratitude.