Discoveries from Switzerland World Cinema

Hani, a 46-year-old Palestinian cartoonist and art teacher, chronicles the generational trauma of exile through his art, navigating the dual asylum of his family in Switzerland and grappling with the enduring hope and despair of displacement.

This film is a brief portrait of a young girl. (1968, 16mm, Color, 21 min., Magnetic sound, 16 frames/second.)

A difficult relationship unfolds across the different floors of an apartment, where distance, encounters, and tension gradually transform the domestic space into an emotional landscape.

An underground archive in the Arctic, museum artefacts awaiting their fate in a storage room in the Netherlands, hidden rock markings in a forest in Switzerland, and a neuroscience study on emotion, reveal a world paused, turning inward, waiting to be shaped by memory and nature; a liminal space between what’s lost and what’s yet to come.

Part of FIFF's section "Une Histoire de Fribourg : Terre de hockey sur glace"

In a dusty saloon somewhere in the American West, a quiet afternoon of poker and whiskey is interrupted when a bounty hunter named Annie Baker walks in searching for answers. She believes someone in the room knows who stole her weapons — and she’s not leaving without a name. What begins as an uneasy reunion with an old acquaintance quickly spirals into chaos when a drink meant for celebration turns deadly. As suspicion spreads across the saloon, every patron becomes a potential culprit, and the tension rises with every passing second. With guns drawn and trust evaporating, Annie forces the room into a brutal game of truth, where one wrong move could mean death.

Mary is one of many Indian nurses who came to Switzerland as guest workers. She lives with her sister and a friend in a shared apartment. One day, she receives a letter from her parents announcing an arranged marriage. For the first time, Mary begins to doubt the path that has been laid out for her. And when she falls in love with the chief physician's brother at a Christmas party, she senses the freedom of a different future.

Today, 66 sisters with an average age of 86 still live in the Ilanz convent. Their communal life is coming to an end. Two central wishes accompany this change: to remain in the convent and to find a new use for it that preserves their spiritual heritage –prayer, care, and education.

Ruth Fayon, who was deported by the Nazi during the Second World War, is persuaded by a teacher to confront the unspeakable after thirty years of silence. During this overwhelming testimony Primo Levi joins Ruth Fayon thanks to archival images.

A woman is stuck in a boring, repetitive phase of her life and wants to move on. She seeks answers in people, and art.

When his two daughters were born, the filmmaker felt an urgent need to return to the valley. The valley of his childhood, of happy summers spent in the mountain pastures, but also the valley of a rupture: the downfall of his alcoholic father.

The film unfolds above the murmuring waves of the central Mediterranean, where the drama of survival plays out on the stage of the sea and sky: immigrant vessels, specks in the deep, moving under the gaze of mechanical hawks. The aerial specters weave a tapestry of surveillance along the maritime border, pioneering the imagination, outlining the vision of sovereignty and order. The detached rhythm of surveillance drones hums in the silent air, casting long shadows on the blue surface of the water in this liminal zone where hope and despair dance together; this indifferent violence casts a deep shadow on the blue surface, its silence more piercing than the primal cries for survival aboard migrant vessels. Yet, these cries are frozen and isolated in front of distant screens, transformed into silent images, silencing the despairing will to live. Are the red dots at sea life jackets or flames?

Two strange birds get to know each other over dinner. The owl, a perfect hostess, serves one course after the other. The oystercatcher is in for a long evening filled with awkward moments and unbearable silence.

During a family game night, Greg’s facing his mother and his girlfriend. Trying to understand how to make choices.

A man amputates his victim's fingers.

A short dance film by Gitta Gsell.

Acciaio (Living Steel) is a quiet exploration of memory, identity, and resilience through the eyes of a child surrounded by mechanical entities.

Documentary by Mario Cortesi about worldwide drug trade and drug consumption. Many scenes, interviews are re-enacted, recreated or freely invented.

This film essay proposes to consider feminism historically, connecting the past with the present. The images filmed today (March 8, 2024 in San Sebastián) interact with the sound and archives of the 1971 film "L'aggettivo donna," made by the Collettivo Femminista di Cinema-Roma.

An abstract short.

Yuyapichis, a village in the Peruvian Amazon, is the starting point from which memories and family stories of displacement, misunderstandings and estrangement come together, while images of daily life wonder about the future of women who were born in a territory where the extractive economy shapes the social and political structures of the community.

While reading Rosa Luxemburg's book Mass Strike, Party and Trade Unions, I discovered that it was not my father's - as I had assumed- but my aunt's, so she and I started sending letters to each other. Writing to her becomes an exercise of memory in which affections and memories interconnect with the territories and political history of the place where I grew up (Lima-PE).

A film by Valerian Schmidely

Documentary about the Swiss mask troupe who perform in a surreal mask- and prop-oriented style.

Halfway between a cinema documentary and an electroacoustic composition, this nearly imageless film —designed for cinema screening—plunges the audience into the harrowing experience of a young woman isolated for several months in a sterile hospital room. Clara Alloing and Noémie Ruben offer an intense yet tender exploration of the long road to recovery.

This documentary paints the portrait of one of the largest public companies in Switzerland. We trace the path from its creation in 1889, through the rubble of rail privatization, to the challenges that the public transportation of tomorrow will face, from the protection of the climate to digitalization.

A Swiss‑German love story set in post‑Wall Berlin. A young East‑Berlin painter named Harry arrives in West Berlin seeking an exhibition, while a couple, Mickey and Rosie, offer mixed motives as they guide him through their fragile emotional landscape

A funny cormorant relaxes on a buoy in the lake and watches an animation that reveals a plan behind it: AI or the desire to take part in the show?

When a quiet man picks up a hitchhiker on a remote Swiss road, an unexpected journey begins. What starts as a simple ride turns into a chaotic, multilingual road trip full of missed signals, unlikely connections, and one woman’s desperate attempt to catch a train. GARE nid WYT is a humorous tale about communication beyond words, and the strange, serendipitous ways Swiss people (Note: Switzerland has 4 national languages) live with each other.

Poland, Ukrainian Border: At the height of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a veteran expatriate confronts the demons of his past on the battlefield when his son decides to cross the border and defend his eastern neighbors.

All hell is breaking loose in an elegant Basel villa: the owner is terrorized by his wife and her arrogant father. He unceremoniously throws the disgusting couple out into the fresh air. But revenge follows hot on their heels. By Basler Häbse-Theater.

A performance by Häbse Theater Basel.

Bünzen Theater Group 1991.

Gender codes within the world of sports are subject to deconstruction. Personal archives meet found footage and questions take the place of solutions. A film about sexism, self-determination and the unresolved struggles of today.

The Director's Cut of the 2016 movie "A8012"

High speeds on a fantastic vehicle...

Wolke in Hosen

When the pictures learned to walk