Switzerland

“Stefanie Klemm’s astonishing feature film debut transforms pain into creativity and trauma into poetry…“

Synopsis:
Judith runs a small trout farm in a remote valley in the Swiss Jura mountains. The hard work demands the utmost of the single mother. Fortunately, reliable help has recently come her way in the form of Gabriel. A trusting relationship soon develops between the two, and Judith’s little daughter Milla also quickly warms to Gabriel.
A sudden tragedy shatters the idyll. Desperation, grief and anger threaten to crush Judith. Her only support is her relationship with Gabriel. But she is unaware of the depth of his involvement in the tragic events.Read More »

The concept of Spin, the inherent turning momentum of electrons, stands for the passing of time and for time itself. The unceasing transformation of the world is translated into film via the gliding movement of the camera. Bright light and blurring portray the environment of the film’s elderly subject, my mother, as pure atmosphere. Her few calm gestures in the face of diminishing time and energy convey a personal presence undisturbed by specific goals. She sits and breathes quietly. When walking she travels across space. The turning away of a tree full of apples evokes regret, as does a sharp light that narrows and dissolves. In the final image my mother seems to taste a bitterness that eludes comprehension.Read More »

Synopsis:
Returning from work, Louis finds a letter from his wife saying their marriage is over. He’s just lost his mother, and now he’s lost his wife as well. Shaken, he tries to understand: why the illness? Why the separation?Read More »

Synopsis:
Arthur and Marcel, two firemen, keep boredom at bay by improvising on stage, one on a keyboard the other on drums, tunes, poems and songs. Carol arrives, in search of her lover Armand. Accompanied by the musicians, she sings of her strange loves and leaves. Then Armand turns up, in search of Carol, and the disturbing Cigare…Read More »

Comprised entirely of archive material, drawing on a rich seam of documents to reveal how Swiss filmmaker and travel writer René Gardi left his mark on how a whole generation viewed Africa from the 1950s onward.Read More »

“Who are you?” – “The queen of punks, in the land of pain in the ass.”

Seven girls live under the same roof but haven’t chosen each other, just like a family. Emerging from difficult backgrounds, here in the safe house, the girls find a new community, in a way they’d never experienced before. They are sharing joy and pain, passionately rebel against the shortcomings of their surrounding – the young women’s temperaments are different, their lust for life large, their place in society too precarious for things to be all peace, love and harmony. Home director Lora is always there for them when­­­­­ they need her. Read More »

Quote:
A bitter-sweet sentimental comedy. The friendship between two girls. Marie is Swiss, Filipa is a Portuguese origin. One is an eternal student. The other is getting married. After Marie’s love affair breaks up, Filipa suggests they spend a month together in Portugal in her family. A place full of peace as well as personal and cultural conflicts, happiness as well as grief, and chance encounters. A time in their lives when they have to make a choice. Sometimes it makes them giddy.Read More »

Quote:
Based on Patricia Highsmith’s personal writings and accounts of her family and lovers, the film casts new light on the famous thriller writer’s life and oeuvre, permeated by themes of love and its defining influence on identity.Read More »

The international cinematic new wave came bursting into the Swiss cinema through the work of Michel Soutter, whose La lune avec les dents (The Moon with Teeth) became practically a manifesto of the movement. Michel Soutter was one of the first directors of New Swiss Cinema who has made fiction films and he cofounded the Groupe 5 with Tanner and Goretta. The film follows William, thirty-ish, out of work and looking for a new life after apparently having been thrown out of his previous one. He meets up with Noelle, who seems intrigued by his restlessness – until her economist boyfriend shows up. Yet plot details do little to convey the power of the film, which lay in its capturing the anarchic texture of William’s life – a life whose lack of direction was read as a rebuke of the Swiss myth of orderliness and self-satisfaction.Read More »