Discoveries from Switzerland World Cinema

After a severe storm Captain Hu finds himself run aground in the Alps. A helpful alpine farmer discovers new uses for the nautical equipment. However, Captain Hu draws the line at that.

During a graduation party, four teenagers are confronted with their angst. They find themselves locked up, they wonder if it might be their last night.

Slugs have a hard time keeping up with the pace of life in the city of insects. When a financial crisis hits, the industrious bees only see one solution. Droll imagery and a jaunty soundtrack converge in this clever modern parable.

During decades of globalization, countless rural communities worldwide found themselves abandoned - from America's Midwest to Italy's mountain villages and places like Tatti face extinction. In this small Italian town, elderly residents lacked the strength to reinvent their fading world and lost hope – until outsiders arrived.

As the EU's green energy ambitions and wish for independence rise, a rural Serbian community becomes a political battleground for Europe's electric future. Plans for a massive lithium mine, poised to be one of the continent's largest, ignite fierce national resistance.

Immediately after a Palestinian man signs an online petition, he is thrown into a panic-inducing spiral of self-doubt. Over the course of a conversation with an understanding friend, he analyzes, deconstructs and interprets the meaning of his choice to publicly support the cultural boycott of Israel.

The award-winning Swiss architect Barbara Buser saves buildings from demolition and rebuilds them with reused materials. She transforms former industrial sites into urban living spaces that symbolize a careful approach to our environment and to each other. As a woman who is successfully forging her own path in a male-dominated field, Barbara Buser is a role model for the younger generation, who are fighting for a more sustainable, fairer world.

What is happening in Nuria’s head? While doctors carefully examine her brain, thoroughly scrutinised by an MRI, Anna Hungerbühler endeavours to show us the day-to-day of her intriguing protagonist, with her little boy Numa and her husband Francesco. A family happiness we sense to be hard-won by a woman with an exuberant personality. This is where the mystery of the film lies: what happened that could shape in this way such a particular relationship, simultaneously intense and melancholic, with the world?

Five characters. Five novels. One room. Five fictional characters meet in a bunker, a rancid bar or in an underpass furnished by its homeless inhabitant – a non-place that condemns them to eternal togetherness. Driven by the failure in their histories, they seek repose and comfort in people who can not offer them any. And yet, the hope for instances of humanness smolders in this restless solitude.

A profile of the 1928 Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Marlo is a cook and aspiring filmmaker trying to capture all that is ephemeral on hard drives. Eloïse is an actress who attends endless auditions while still young. Finally, Liam is a jazz-obsessed musician who locks himself away in a world of music and cigars. The film explores these three diverse existences trying to find their place in an ever-changing world, under the unchanging glow of the remnants of the Betelgeuse supernova.

Swiss musician Dodo travels the world in a container that serves as a mobile production studio, but his dream project runs into trouble along the way

Heinrich Danioth (1896-1953) is the most prominent artist from the canton of Uri and, at the same time, one of Switzerland’s outstanding painters in the 20th century. Although most people know of the red devil he painted on the rock face of the legendary Schöllenen Gorge, the artist has remained relatively unknown to the public. Primarily based on Danioth’s diaries and letters, the film portrays the life story of an artist lapsed into undeserved obscurity. Together with contemporary witnesses still alive today (including his two daughters), the filmmaker reconstructs the artist’s life.

The adventures of a cat, who can transform into something else when a certain melody is played on the flute.

In the dark depths of the net, Bernadette teams up with the enigmatic influencer duo Kitty and Peter to orchestrate the demise of student Lotte – a live stream meant to leave the internet buzzing. However, Bernadette imagined all of this quite differently.

Embark on a cinematic adventure through the frozen expanse of the Arctic as the fascinating story of muskoxen is unveiled. Filmed over the span of three years, the documentary explores the strength and beauty of muskoxen and the extraordinary resilience of these mighty creatures.

Valentina creates roses out of wool while her father tends to the plants, which are now wilting. They are surrounded by “MUOSters” that intrude into their lives. One day, the young woman realizes that thanks to her ability to create beauty, she is able to change her destiny.

Thirty four to eight-year-old children spend day after day in the forest, in sunshine, rain and snow. They learn reading, writing and arithmetic along the way. Above all, they explore the forest on their own, experience the cycle of nature and seek their role in the community.

Artus - Excalibur is a musical loosely based on the legends of the 5th/6th-century British monarch King Arthur and his fabled sword, Excalibur. The score is by Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics by Robin Lerner and book by Ivan Menchell. The musical had its world premiere at the Theater St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland in 2014

Milazim, Fatmir and Liridon are veteran manual labourers who experienced accidents in their workplaces in Kosovo, Europe's youngest country. In this poetic experimental documentary tribute to a now almost extinct class of people, Ilir Hasanaj gives voice to gentle, sincere and dignified, but almost invisible individuals, who fell prey to harsh and primitive capitalistic machinery and policy in the Balkans.

A journey inside a woman's mind. A woman, Alicia, living in today’s society governed by confusion, who doesn't know how to really love. Alicia “belongs” to two people: a man and a woman, each complementing the duality of this world.

Maren leads a regular life as a bus tour guide. When her brother turns up unexpectedly and joins her senior travel group, Maren can no longer avoid him. Torn between affection and fear of the family ties, she tries to find a way of dealing with the unwanted guest. A scandal breaks out on the bus in front of the tour group.

Individual identities disappear and arise in transit space. Everything is in constant motion, and everyone potentially suspicious.

Mrs. Wiesner has the fate of her family firmly under control. In her cramped janitor's apartment, she toils for the happiness and future of her children, who are supposed to be better off one day. Her daughter Helen thinks she is happily married to an American millionaire. Their son Herbert has managed to pass his A-levels with great difficulty and, unfortunately for him, is supposed to study medicine. Only the youngest daughter goes her own way, working as a waitress and socializing with foreigners. Nevertheless, everything seems to be in perfect order for mother Wiesner: her husband, a streetcar driver for the public transport company, is to inaugurate the latest streetcar as the crowning glory of his career. But as life goes: Happiness cannot always be steered into predetermined paths and sometimes things turn out differently than you would wish. When Helen unexpectedly returns from America with her child, Mrs. Wiesner's happiness begins to fade.

Beyond the window of a car, a road unfolds. In the passenger seat, a young woman seems to be waiting for it to end. Beside her, the man sitting behind the wheel strives in vain to make this journey to nowhere last.

Filmed in Mistra, Greece. Preserved in Anthology Film Archives, New York.

The "requerimiento" was a declaration by the Spanish monarchy of Castile’s divine right to take possession of the New World’s territories and to subjugate, exploit and, if necessary, fight the native inhabitants. This film explores the aesthetics of a mythological time and its archetypical creatures and materialities. Following the trajectories of a serpent and the fragment of a meteorite, "Requerimiento" develops an interwoven narration questioning human and nonhuman alterities in different epochs and cultures.

In a Swiss mountain village, hikers head out, a fountain splashes reassuringly and a churchwarden prepares a mass. Debut director Valentina Shasivari evokes the calm of this serene landscape with tightly framed shots in contrast-rich black-and-white.

The village of Poschiavo and its valley as a new Far West, more than six years after the killing of the M13 bear.

Using their bare hands, married couple Htwe Tin and Thein Shwe draw oil from a pit they drilled themselves on the land next to their house. There are lots of these “artisanal” oilfields dotted around Myanmar, where people have swapped crop cultivation for selling the oil they pump from the ground by hand.

After 30 years of chain smoking, Swiss filmmaker Peter Liechti sets out on a journey - three times! - to wean himself off cigarettes. He departs from Zürich and walks to St. Gallen, the place were he grew up und also the place where he started smoking. On his pilgrimage through Switzerland he hopes to find the root of his addiction and waits for a final catharsis to release him. Time and time again though, his sympathy for other smokers and disdain for goody-goody non-smokers gets in the way. And time after time his nicotine addiction gets the best of him. His three attempts to quit by walking it off, turn into an expedition of Liechtis home country. He gives a declaration of independence but also a confession of love to Switzerland.

Every day, farms disappear due to a lack of successors. Leonard, the son of doctors and a university graduate, makes the unexpected choice to become a farmer.

A poor orphan ends up in a high society until a pair of red shoes forces her to dance forever.

Arnold Golay, 91, a former watchmaker who once had learned to make a timepiece entirely by hand. This know-how has always stood him in good stead. Upon retirement, Golay became a full-time toy maker. Even as a watchmaker, he used to make toys for his own children. The film follows his steps as he builds a toy hand-cart, from raw wood to finished product. We also see his collection of toys, which are reduced-scale models of all the carts, wheel barrows and other implements used on the farm before the invention of the tractor.

This documentary charts the life of Irish photographer Edward Quinn who shot some of the most iconic photos of 20th century glitterati. He was a fixture on the French Riviera in the 1950s and witnessed its glitz and glamour. The film recounts a dazzling era of stars, starlets, playboys, princes and artists.

The Guler family have a dream: to take their son Jan to the pinnacle of world tennis. While his peers embark on apprenticeships or attend gymnasium classes, Jan joins the professional players' training camp. It's a huge challenge for the whole family. Over a period of five years, the film follows the Guler family on their road to success, showing first-hand how they cope with the sporting, family and social demands of a professional sports career. Little by little, Jan grows into a young man.

25 years after the end of apartheid, an Afrikaner man returns to the small town and haunting landscapes he grew up in in rural South Africa. Confronted with the failing health of his father and ghosts from the past, he remembers and seeks out the town's dogs, gays and people fallen by the wayside of the 'rainbow nation'. The town simmers with unresolved histories compounded with fresh challenges in a climate-changing world, preoccupied by questions of life and death, meaning and survival.

Dedicated to Nigel Gosling. Voice-over with Hans Richter reading a Dada text. Filmed in Locarno. Oesterreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna

Hoping to find the man she seeks to take revenge on, Billie gets hired as a masseuse at a private poker club…

Peter Reber joined the popular German maritime-folk band Santiano for a trio of Swiss concerts (January 30–February 1, 2014), blending his Swiss folk hits in German alongside Santiano’s seafaring repertoire and earning a special Gold-certified Swiss edition of their joint album. The televised concert highlights included Reber’s classics like “Die Kinder des Kolumbus” and “Der Sonne entgegen” performed in duet with Santiano, showcasing a harmonious fusion of Swiss schlager and northern folk-rock.

Returning home to his native Emmental after travelling around the world, Jürg Neuenschwander comes across peoble who are skilled in the art of healing and tend to the sick with herbs and powers even though the law of the canton of Berne still strictly prohibits the practice of healing. Healers have become very popular. Their patients come from all walks of life: nurses, distillers, alpine farmers and computer experts alike approach healers in the hope that they will relieve or even deliver them from their sufferings. Many patients with chronical illnesses view healers as the last resort after traditional doctors have failed to help them.

UB40 play the Baloise Session in Basel, Switzerland

A film about people who have fought for more freedom and justice – and have had to pay dearly for it. The two women and two men from Tibet, Congo, Chile, and Turkey now live in Switzerland. In their native countries they were badly tortured for their human rights efforts. Nevertheless, they have not lost their belief in a better world.

Shot in a creaky, wooden-floored Parisian recording studio at an inaugural three-day “forum of ideas” focusing on the manifold possibilities of “Resistance”, the film initially appears to be a structuralist document of a philosophical discussion in-the-round.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is back to challenge Putin’s grip on power. Once Russia’s richest man and head of energy giant Yukos, he spent a decade in jail after challenging the Kremlin. His takedown sent a strong signal to Russia’s powerful tycoons not to meddle in politics. For the first time after his release, he talks about his time behind bars and his vision for a new Russia. He relaunched the Open Russia Movement to strengthen democracy in Russia - a move towards presidency?

Andrej Medvedev is the first Wagner Group mercenary who fought for Russia in Ukraine and fled to the West. He now lives in Oslo, is applying for political asylum, and says he wants to “find peace”. But he himself stands in the way of his integration in Norway, because despite his escape from Putin’s realm, Andrej remains a staunch Russian patriot. He has renounced Wagner and the war, but whether he will ever be able to leave his inner Russia behind is completely uncertain.

The story of an elderly woman suffering from dementia. With the help of her granddaughter, she recalls times gone by through the enjoyment of familiar dishes and sensory experiences.

A female-led research team embarks on a quest to uncover the chemical secrets that make plants bloom instantly.

Farming is no longer profitable, tourist buses stop at the nearby parking lot, but leave behind nothing but trash. Why not profit from them? After lengthy discussions, the Holzer farming family decides to "prostitute" themselves to tourists in their own way: they convert their living room into a "peep show," offering a glimpse into authentic rustic life—with a money slot! Even the 90-year-old grandfather is involved in this campaign. A campaign that takes on increasingly absurd and garish traits, just so that the Holzers can supplement their income.

On his return from Paris, where he had co-founded the “musical artists” group, Charles Blanc-Gatti set up Colorfilm in Montreux (1938), where he produced three commissioned animated films, as well as a “free” work, Chromophony (1939). An animated advertising film for Bitter, Les Diablerets was inspired by Frédéric Rouge's drawings. The Devil causes an avalanche that engulfs Derborence, but under the rocks grow the plants used to make this aperitif.

Eager to create a monumental work of art, a shaman remains blissfully unaware that she is painting her murals in the mouth of a vain weather presenter.