Discoveries from Switzerland World Cinema

The brief encounter with a traumatized Syrian refugee girl turns the world of twelve-year-old Isaf upside down.

When Commander Mira sets out for a mission in space, something unforeseen happens. After hitting a wormhole, she discovers what nobody has ever witnessed before. The incredible discovery made by Mira soon turns into misery when communication with the base fails and supplies run low.

In a large forest where single-coloured birds live, everyone has found his place in a tree that looks like him. But what happens when a bird has two colours?

The film accompanies musicians who have devoted themselves to new, uncharted sounds with a great deal of passion. They build new instruments and work with quotidian noises. In the process, the ostensible noise often becomes sound. An adventurous journey of discovery into the realm of noises and sounds, rhythms and stillness. Together with people who listen closely and without reservation. A film that aims to engage viewers to listen with their eyes and see with their ears. Astonishingly sublime.

Full breath ahead into the final sleep. A lullaby with closed eyes for a silent decline.

Between a wave’s rhythm and the breath of a young woman in her sleep, some animated paintings go on modifying each other.

A car crashes, an expensive drill goes missing, systematic theft occurs in the department store, a murder happens. Police officer Wäckerli has his hands full and eventually even finds himself in mortal danger.

Two young girls in Ukrainian costume perform a dance near a palm tree in a garden.

To finish his movie, a young director has himself declared unfit to conclude business and with help from his friend commit credit frauds. They secure the necessary funding and finish the movie, but are quickly revealed, the guardianship is transferred to another person and the director now has to work for the new guardian. Luckily, they're invited to a film festival to screen their movie....

18-year-old Rafael is determined to conquer the world as a musician. "Life is a game," he says, but unexpectedly, it turns into a bitter reality. How much freedom is allowed?

The mythical figure of Srikandi, a female figure from the Indian Mahabharata epic that changes gender to live and fight as an equal among men, is the inspiration and role model for this anthology of stories on the state of alternate sexualities in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world. The result is eight highly personal and profound perspectives on lesbian, bisexual and trans-identity life in Islamic Indonesia.

An immigrant mother writes and narrates letters to the family she left behind.

The film documents the life and stages of Othella Dallas, born 1925 in Memphis, Tennessee that even at her high age now does not consider to stop singing and dancing. At the age of 19 she was discovered by the legendary Katherine Dunham, studied at her school in New York and soon became a highly acclaimed solo dancer. In 1950 she started her Solo-Career and soon after shared the stage with Jazz legends like Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton or Quincy Jones. In 1953 she married a Swiss and ever since lives and of course still sings in Switzerland.

An excursion into the lost woods of childhood.

Does man serve the machine or vice versa? This question is at the center of this astonishing commissioned film. We meet a man named Albert Bernet, who lives on a remote farm in the Val de Travers. He is passionate about two professions: Farmer and watchmaker. In 1960, he was one of the dying breed of so-called “peasant-watchmakers” – home workers who were slowly but surely being displaced by factory workers. The production of the film was commissioned by the watch company Ebauches S.A. This makes the director all the more daring as he paints a bleak picture of the new work processes in the precision industry.

Invited by the then 74-year-old James Danaqyumptewa, two Swiss artists come to witness and document the non-violent resistance of the Hopi in Arizona, combining sketches, photography and animation. At once a message in a bottle and a cry for help.

8mm film by Swiss artist Roman Signer.

With her worldwide success "Fear of Flying", Erica Jong inspired the sexual liberation of women. She dared to set out for herself and demanded an encounter on equal terms. She wanted to change the world and still wants to today.

Short film by Markus Imhoof.

A short film by Gitta Gsell.

A statement about our wonderfully greedy world. Inspired by an anecdote from the booming Tokyo of the 80s, the film tells the glamorous story of the vicious property shark Akio Kashiwagi. His passion is illegal gambling in the underworld. An American is on his trail, but Akio's greatest enemy is his own insatiable greed.

In Córdoba, Spain, budding filmmakers and actors from the Federico García Lorca primary school are working on a film project. An idea takes shape… to bring to the screen the story of the Roma people from the Punjab, who have lived in Spain for several centuries and yet are still perceived as foreigners by the local community.

Ethiopian farmers and a team of international architects have joined forces to tackle the problem of rural exodus. Deep in the African hinterlands, the unequal participants are building a small model town that could point the way out of the globally worsening migration crisis.

Taina Lopez films her colleague Martina shooting a documentary in a Swiss ski resort.

The first experiences for five mentally handicapped children entering school, who will have to learn how to get along with the others: an almost impossible task, as they seem to be closed to the outside world. But gradually, the class takes shape before our eyes as the students move towards and against everything, much to the amazement and delight of their parents.

With the help of a fortune teller, a priest and his apprentice set out on a demon hunt, unaware of what lies ahead.

A film about the return of a woman to a house where a drama took place – the return to her memories, her fears and her intimacy.

A master and his pupil. As if in a mirror, Manolo, ex-matador de toros, sees himself in Mario, a young bullfighter. The long training sessions let us enter the controversial world of bullfighting through a particular gaze, far from the classic image of the bullfighter dressed in gold and surrounded by pomp.

After her parents' divorce, Sabina was forced to follow her mother to Switzerland while her sister, Narmina, stayed with their father in Baku. Five years later, the 17 and 19 year old sisters are reunited when Sabina comes to spend he summer in Azerbaijan. Yet Sabina's vacation has a secret motive: she wants to move back home to live with the father she loves so deeply. He, too, has a project of his own: he wishes to marry for the third time and has to break the news to his daughters.

On an aircraft, a passenger recalls the pictures which he just completed. These images are seen by a fly. And time that passed to identify himself in comparison to the insect makes him doubt his own vision.

Swiss Sounds is an immersive cinematic journey that follows the acclaimed French electronic producer, Thylacine, as he explores the rugged landscapes and unique sonic textures of Switzerland. Known for his "graphic composition" style and his tendency to record in nomadic studios—from the Trans-Siberian Railway to the deserts of Argentina—this film captures his latest creative odyssey. The documentary blends breathtaking cinematography of the Swiss Alps with an intimate look at the artist's creative process. Using his modular synthesizers and field recordings, Thylacine transforms the sounds of mountain echoes, traditional Swiss instruments, and industrial machinery into a powerful, melodic techno performance. Directed by Thylacine & Cécile Chabert Recorded and composed by Thylacine Camera : Emile Cervia Drone : Cécile Chabert Production : Suisse Tourisme Editing : Thylacine Color Grading : Maxime Mourey Piano interpretation : Bravinsan Karunanithy Mixing : Antoine Thibaudeau

In a regulated system built of boxes, the characters live and work in isolation. They draw, cut, fold and stack paper boxes. As the stacks get too high and finally collapse, the characters find each other and discover life together.

An infinite of unexpected connections is breaking everyday life. A meteorite, fleeting and burning, crosses the immeasurable city. It explodes in the intimacy of a skyscraper, and it explodes in their body which takes to dancing as a vital impulse. There is nothing more intimate and universal as dancing alone with music.

In spite of the scary legends of what happens to hedgehogs that don't hibernate, Giuseppe decides not to sleep this year. But this winter, the snow doesn't arrive as expected. So Giuseppe and his two rabbit friends are going on a quest to find snow!

Bolivia in the 50's : on the Island of the Sun, in the midst of Lake Titicaca, Alberto Perrin films the indigenous community recently emancipated through the agrarian reform and the 1952 revolution. 2010: Carmen Perrin, his daughter, returns to the inhabitants the films shot by her father. No nostalgia, because the ancestral rites and the spirit of liberty continues to enliven the community, despite the pressure of tourism. A memory is emerging, gestures are invented, ties are woven in the landscape sanctuary.

After separating from her partner, Lisa is looking for a new challenge. A friend helps her get a job as a chambermaid in a luxury hotel. In order to cover a loss, she learns how to rip off millionaires. In the process, she falls in love with one of her victims...

A documentary of an expedition to Churchill, Manitoba to film the Northern Lights.

A Sadhu. A holy man of Hinduism who has renounced all earthly possessions in order to retire to a grotto in the heart of the Himalayas. After eight years of living as a hermit, his meditations no longer satisfy him. In order to redeem his solemn vow, he has to take the risk of confronting the world again. During his pilgrimage Indian mysticism becomes gradually superimposed by the humanity of this wise man. A sage that no longer wants to be one.

Fixed 23 is part of the Fixed Series. A digital manipulation of the origin point of a scene’s motion system. It feels as though the laws of physics have been momentarily suspended of course, they remain untouched. What shifts is our perception, the quiet disorientation of seeing the scene anew.

Unopened reminders, mountains of debt, an uncertain future: single-parent cleaner Nathalie struggles through life to secure her livelihood and that of her children. She doesn't want pity or charity and certainly doesn't want to end up on welfare. Episodic and unembellished, the film portrays a woman living at subsistence level, in the middle of Switzerland, in our midst. A woman for whom giving up is not an option.

In 1806, the collapse of Mount Rossberg triggered one of Switzerland's most devastating natural disasters, which obliterated the village of Goldau, claiming 457 lives. This film vividly portrays the harrowing moments that reshaped an entire valley.

Angel, a ruthless killer, is in a bar having a drink with the stubborn detective who has been hunting her for years. But they both hide a secret.

Alina's stepfather, a Nigerian who works as a chef in Zurich, is arrested for allegedly dealing drugs. Visits to the remand center take their toll on the patchwork family. Is he guilty?

The „Haelgung“ films are charmingly impressionistic diary entries, crafted as mini homages to my closest friends, captured with a delightful lack of planning or structure and edited in camera.

The history and life of the soldiers involved the world’s highest, less known and most absurd war. This conflict began in 1984, a battle for the control over the Siachen glacier located at the extreme northern edge of the Indian-Pakistan border. Twenty years of conflict to maintain sovereignty over a few hundred square kilometres of ice, rock lost somewhere in the middle of the Himalayas.

Upon entering the harbor, the voyager leaves the exceptional condition of the boundless sea--this traversable space of maritime immensity--to come ashore in an offshore place, in a container world that only tolerates the trans-local state of not being of this place--nor of any other really--but of existing in a condition of permanent not-belonging, of juridical non-existence. He comes to signify the itinerant body, bound to string along a chain of territories, never reaching a final destination. Probing the protocols of access time and again, he moves through non-civil places, waits for status in off-social spaces, only to remain suspended in the post-humanist lapse. What used to be a state of temporary exemption--survival in the fluid time-space of legal deferral--has slowly consolidated into the prime mode of migratory subsistence. The site of this existence is connected but segregated; it is the world system of contained mobility. (Video Data Bank)

This is a passage through life. Through the writing of these two characters, through dance, through the need to bring one's body to life and express a feeling, an emotion, and to free oneself to move forward, turn a page and make a beautiful memory. While keeping the image alive, grainy and true.

The story of Yugoslav football team who participated at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

This short movie is about pro skier and activist Elisabeth Gerritzen, whose fights are as important to her as her sport. In the mountains, she is Elisabeth the skier, in the streets, she is Elisabeth the activist. She lives her two lives very separately and makes sure those two sides do not interfere with each other. Until the day she becomes world freeride champion. The activist then meets the sportswoman when Elisabeth decides to use her title and the attention around it to come out publicly.

The Spanish friends of filmmaker Adrien Bordone were born in Switzerland and were forced by their parents to ‘return’ to Galicia after finishing school. Twenty years later, the filmmaker and his friends explore the reasons for this remigration.

'i STiLL BELiEVE iN CELLULOiD.’

"Lucid Dreams Of Gabriel" is a surrealistic and non-linear story about a mother achieving immortality through her son, unconditional love, and the fluidity of time. The film portrays a moment of transition, from life to afterlife, with the story being told from three different perspectives - a mother, her son, and the messenger who can alter the time. Simona and her son Gabriel travel through three realms - a present moment (at 24 fps), supernatural world (at 48 fps) and a lucid dream (at 48 fps) - in order to discover the purpose of their lives. But, in order to fulfill that purpose, Simona must give away her life afore. Through an afterlife mirror, Simona views the last few minutes of her life with her son. Later, as Gabriel falls asleep, Simona receives a small gift of time from a Messenger. As the sands of time quickly run out, she appears to Gabriel in his dream, in order to deliver a message that he will never forget.