A Different History(1994)

Open Letters(fr)

Between 1931 to 2002, Switzerland issued some six million seasonal residence permits, known as "A" permits, to immigrant workers. This status carried drastic rules, such as a ban on family reunification and a stay in Switzerland limited to nine months a year. In open letters, former seasonal workers and their children recount the impact this system had on their lives.

Naître Svetlana Staline(en)

In 1967, in the middle of the Cold War, Joseph Stalin's only daughter goes to the American embassy in New Delhi and asks for asylum. Svetlana leaves behind her country and her two children. Hunted by the press, the KGB, and many admirers, the woman, nicknamed the Kremlin princess, will never cease to flee. From the summit of the Soviet empire to the solitude and poverty of her last years in a Wisconsin home, Gabriel Tejedor traces the destiny of a resolutely free woman, at the very heart of the century and its geopolitical challenges.

Zadvengers(fr)

Environmental activists Thor, Hulk, Black Panther, Captain Anarchy and Batman illegally occupy Mormont Hill. They create a utopian model of society while waging a peaceful struggle against the enemy: the cement industry. Far from any society, these activists invent, create and reclaim a threatened site. A new threat looms when the police announce that they will soon be evicted. Zadvengers offers a poetic and personal vision of the reality of activism in the "Zones to be Defended" (ZADs).

Zürcher Tagebuch(de)

Alpine Saga(de)

Award-winning director Langjahr returns to his beloved Alps to document a group of people continuing the legacy of their forefathers. Every year on Swiss National day, August 1, the Wildheuer climb up the steep mountain of the «Hinteren Heubrig», fitted out with scythes and wearing wooden shoes with spikes, just as their ancestors did before them. They are part of a generation who have lived with the challenges of nature and survived it. In his film, Langjahr's poetic realism gives an insight into these people's experience of the simple life, the very foundation of human existence.

Dr Tscharniblues(de)

Bern, 1979: a tower block called Tscharnergut. A group of friends get together to make a film about their experiences growing up in suburban Switzerland.

Eine vo dene(de)

Bern, 1980: A caleidoscopic portrait of Swiss urban life in the early 1980s.

My Old Man(de)

Welcome to “the prime of life”. All his life, Rudy has worked hard for the firm, and for the family. But now, everything is about to change: Rudy retires. No alarm clock, no meetings, no travels to distant countries to set the pace. Shopping, cooking, gardening, and the daily routines of marital bliss will now fill his schedule. Rudy was actually looking forward to it, to the next phase. But as he soon realizes, “the prime of life” is a wild ride on an emotional rollercoaster. Retirement is not for cowards.

Tscharniblues II(de)

Bern, 1979: a tower block called Tscharnergut. Together with a few friends (among them famous Swiss actor Stefan Kurt), director Aron Nick's father and uncle shoot the idealistic Super 8 film "Dr Tscharniblues" ("The Tscharni Blues") – a wild, unvarnished self-portrait of their generation. 40 years later, Nick gathers the friends at Tscharnergut and asks what has happened to them and their ideals in the meantime. What have the achieved? What have they lost? Past, present, and future clash and form a journey of personal disappointments, hopes, and a collective search for identity. In "Tscharniblues II," Aron Nick discovers a kind of friendship that can weather anything.

The Alps - Climb of Your Life(en)

In 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.

The Secret of the Secret(en)

The traditional healers in the Swiss and French mountains.

Walter Mittelholzer - Eine Schweizer Pioniergeschichte(de)

The Blocher Experience(fr)

The Blocher Experience tells the story of Switzerland’s most controversial political leader. It also chronicles the face-to-face encounter between a film-maker and a man of power, through a year of exclusive, up-close interviews and access to his private life.

Der grosse Kanton(de)

Is the solution to Switzerland's future to integrate Germany into the confederation? After all, like Michael Ringier, CEO of the Ringier media group, says, blithely ignoring all minorities, we're very close in culture and language. Oskar Freysinger takes out his guitar and sings his answer. Politicians from French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino think expanding will help the country survive. The former German foreign minister thinks the two countries' traditions are too different. The banker Oswald Grübel is worried about Germany's debts, although he'd be prepared to take over its assets. With serious interviews interspersed with gags (boat people on Lake Constance, the last Habsburger as a peasant), Giaccobbo gathers off-the-cuff reactions which reveal a lot about the different mentalities. The movie laughs at preconceived notions, redefines neutrality and reflects on what designates a nation. Switzerland, which loves to teach the world a lesson, will soon helvetize the planet, oder?

Libellula gentile. Fabio Pusterla, il lavoro del poeta(it)

A film about the Swiss Italian poet Fabio Pusterla and his creative poetic process, his struggle to find an honest language, one which adheres to the personal experience and is able to unfold a hidden truth that creates a strong and profound bond with the other, with his public.

She's Beautiful When She's Angry(en)

A documentary that resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women's movement from 1966 to 1971.

Rue de Blamage(de)

The Baselstrasse is a street in Lucerne. People call it "Rue de Blamage" – it's a noisy street tucked into a narrow space between a hill and a train track. The people who live here don't usually mingle with the rich and famous, but even the roughest haunt can be a home to those who live and work there – and Baselstrasse's two kilometers of asphalt are no different.

Agassizhorn: Mountain of Shame(de)

In the Bernese Alps, the Agassizhorn peak memorialises Louis Agassiz – a controversial 19th-century scientist, who not only named the mountain after himself, but who claimed he had discovered the Ice Age and went on to become one of the century's most virulent, most influential racists.

Not Done: Women Remaking America(en)

"Not Done: Women Remaking America" chronicles the seismic eruption of women's organizing from the 2016 election through today, and the intersectional fight for equality that has now gone mainstream. Like the movement it documents, this story is told collectively: through the firsthand experiences and narratives of frontline activists, writers, celebrities, artists, and politicians who are remaking culture, policy, and most radically, our notions about gender. Premiering against the backdrop of an unprecedented pandemic and widespread social upheaval, "Not Done" shines a light on the next generation of feminists who are unafraid to take on complex problems and are leading the way to true equality.

Special Flight(fr)

Switzerland still carries out special flights, where passengers, dressed in diapers and helmets, are chained to their seats for 40 hours at worst. They are accompanied by police officers and immigration officials. The passengers are flown to their native countries, where they haven't set foot in in up to twenty years, and where their lives might be in danger. Children, wives and work are left behind in Switzerland. Near Geneva, in Frambois prison, live 25 illegal immigrants waiting for deportation. They are offered an opportunity to say goodbye to their families and return to their native countries on a regular flight, escorted by plain-clothes police officers. If they refuse this offer, the special flight is arranged fast and unexpectedly. The stories behind the locked cells are truly heartbreaking.