
A documentary about healers from the Swiss canton of Appenzell.
6.8In 1966, John Harlin II died while attempting Europe's most difficult climb, the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. 40 years later, his son John Harlin III, an expert mountaineer and the editor of the American Alpine Journal, returns to attempt the same climb.
0.0A documentary film about Tibetan traditional medicine.
6.8An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in the French Alps (Chartreuse Mountains). The idea for the film was proposed to the monks in 1984, but the Carthusians said they wanted time to think about it. The Carthusians finally contacted Gröning 16 years later to say they were now willing to permit Gröning to shoot the movie, if he was still interested.
0.0The hills of Lausanne, Switzerland, have become a Mecca for roller-skaters and Ivano has become a prince among them. Ivano rises above the ordinary and often dead-end choices that most young people face today.
8.0This documentary follows Swiss improvisation musicians and tells their stories.
0.0She was a muse, model and performer – a star, dazzling and intense. Lady Shiva managed to rise from street prostitution to the top. She lived in the fast lane and died tragically young. Her dream was to become a singer. With her companions, we trace her life during a vibrant time that kindles a yearning and provokes until today. The story of a woman’s meteoric fate and a great dream. An irrepressible desire for freedom in all its beauty and destructive force - and a stirring friendship and love.
6.2It is winter at an emergency shelter for the homeless in Lausanne. Every night at the door of this little-known basement facility the same entry ritual takes place, resulting in confrontations which can sometimes turn violent. Those on duty at the shelter have the difficult task of “triaging the poor”: the women and children first, then the men. Although the total capacity at the shelter is 100, only 50 “chosen ones” will be admitted inside and granted a warm meal and a bed. The others know it will be a long night.
0.0The film traces the mysterious story of the Indian elephant RAJA, who was sent on an adventurous journey from the forests of Kerala to Vienna around 1550, via Lisbon. Gandhi activist P. V. Rajagopal's explorations along the route uncover surprising facts and awaken fascinating associations. We witness the capture of the little elephant, its training, its work in the forest and its performances at temple festivals - until it is chosen as a status symbol by European rulers. A story of appropriation that continues to this day.
0.0Dieter Roth was an artist who combined art and life in a unique way. He painted, drew, printed, wrote, filmed and made music. He created his own universe in which he turned all materials, no matter how banal or ephemeral, into art. The film "Dieter Roth" is conceived as an inner and outer journey, just as Dieter Roth lived, worked, taught, learned, loved and suffered while traveling. The starting point is his works, including videos and films in which he himself acts - friends and companions will also accompany this cinematic journey, above all his son Björn, who has worked with him for the last 20 years.
7.2At the far end of the Alaskan peninsula, for filmmaker Roman Droux a childhood dream comes true. He discovers together with the bear researcher David Bittner the universe of wild grizzlies. The two adventurists face bears at smelling-distance, experience the struggle for survival of a bear family and witness dramatic fighting scenes. Driven by a desire to explore the unknown the film tells a personal story of wilderness, framed in breathtaking pictures of unique creatures.
10.0What is the purpose of our existence ? What is the soul ? Which are the power of mind, of conscience ? What is our link to nature ? Pondering these existential questions, this movie invites us to find out an universal wisdom, meeting shamans, healers, yogis, but also philosophers and doctors. From Mongolia plains to the Amazonian forest, it leads us far than we expected at first.
0.0Zurich-born Hugo Koblet was the first international cycling star of the post-war period. He was a stylist on the bicycle and in life, and a huge heartthrob. Koblet had a meteoric rise and won the Giro d'Italia in 1950. Once he had reached the zenith of his career, Koblet was put under pressure by overly ambitious officials and ended up ruining his health with drugs. In 1954, he married a well-known model and they became a celebrity dream couple. After his athletic career ended, Koblet began to lose his footing. Threatened by bankruptcy, he crashed his Alfa into a tree.
7.5The film explores the destruction of a unique train station in Zurich and the construction of the new prison and police centre in its place. From the perspective of the filmmaker’s window, and with testimony from prisoners awaiting deportation, the film probes how we deal with the extinction of history and its replacement with total security.
6.0Beneath its reassuring façade, Davos is each year at the heart of the Western and capitalistic world. Every chief of State and everyone who is someone in the money world meets with their peers in the Swiss village. What is really at stake in Davos ? Julia Niemann and Daniel Hoesl create a fascinating observational documentary in which judgement is never handed out and where the dialectics of conflicts matter more than easy and reassuring answers. The film asks the viewer some uncomfortable questions by focusing on challenges that the new global economy poses to the world.
0.0Tax row, bank secrecy and exploitative commodities trading companies: Switzerland has an image problem. But don’t worry. Simon and Andreas are taking care of it. The two fearless filmmakers head out on a yearlong odyssey across Switzerland in order to rebuild the battered reputation of their home country. Along the way they meet farmers and allotment gardeners, journalists and tourists, villa owners and numerous perplexed foreigners.
