Antek, 22, grows up in a deeply religious and right-wing family in present-day Poland. Catholicism, nationalism and above all celibacy define his world.
Over several years, filmmaker Hanka Nobis accompanies him, his friends and his family with her team. She witnesses Antek enjoying his growing power in the Brotherhood, a small group of like-minded young men. But when he falls in love, he begins to have doubts.
Five senior citizens dare to step into the unknown. For 18 months, they will participate in a training based on mindfulness and altruism, which will be measured for a study. The aim is to evaluate the effects of meditation on ageing. The film tells their personal journey and mirrors it with scientific objectivity and the challenges of ageing well in our society. Living longer and longer – yes, but how?
Beyond the adventure of these seniors citizens, the film shows meditation as a way to connect with oneself and one’s surroundings. It illuminates the realities of this path with stumbling blocks, moments of doubt, gratitude, joy and sometimes relief.
Japan, in a near future. The government’s Plan 75 program encourages the elderly to voluntarily euthanize themselves in order to prevent an aging society. An elderly woman who can no longer live independently, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino caregiver face a life-or-death decision.
How can one talk about feminist struggles in a tender way with an enlightened patriarch?
Under the influence of a very personal poetic potion, Nadia Fares transforms the homage to her beloved Egyptian father into a chronicle of the situation of women in Egypt and in Switzerland. She explores the effects of patriarchal tradition as a mirror effect between Orient and Occident.
Algeria, 1516. The pirate Aroudj Barbarossa frees Algiers from the tyranny of the Spanish and seizes power over the kingdom. Rumor has it he murdered King Salim Toumi despite their alliance. Against all odds, one woman will stand up to him: Queen Zaphira. Between history and legend, this woman’s journey tells of a struggle, of personal and political turmoil endured for the sake of Algiers.
Ren, who is in her mid-twenties, goes on holiday with her Italian-Canadian parents and her younger sister Siena. Her family doesn’t know that she recently lost her job. Ren tries to find her way around the beach resort, which is geared towards retirees, and to escape her parents’ loving but overprotective ways, while her sister keeps the family on their toes with her rebellious outbursts. Knowing that Ren will be even more dependent on her parents’ support after the holidays, the resort house feels more and more confining.
In this refreshingly cliché-free film, writer-director Luis De Filippis tells of vibrant family dynamics and explores a Millennial’s conflicted desire to be independent yet cared for. While the film perfectly captures the tenor of a summer holiday where sunshine, watered-down booze, boredom and awkwardness are standard, there is an underlying sense of the slight unease that afflicts Ren as a trans woman in a conservative resort. Beyond melodramatic stereotypes, De Filippis and her team show us a world that authentically represents the trans experience.
There are jobs without which society would not function. Who are those caretakers, the people who keep everyday life going, who keep the homes clean, provide food, and make it possible for the rest of us to live and work comfortably even during a pandemic?
In Switzerland, there is a basic lack of social recognition for these frontliners. Before, many of them were largely invisible. That has changed. Society today is aware of the value of their work. But what has really changed? And how do these hard workers feel about the attention they suddenly got? Why do they stay in their jobs and what would they change?
The film gives a voice to those that usually remain silent and invisible: a single mother, a young nurse, a sales manager and mother of three, a politically active child care worker and a Portuguese immigrant working as restaurant manager. In a very fine and silent way, harsh realities are addressed and the big topics of these frontliners become close and clear.
Solothurner Filmtage
At the small retirement home Dagmarsminde, the founding nurse May Bjerre Eiby has no interest in specific dementia diagnoses or medicine, since neither is improving the quality of life for the 11 residents. Instead, May and her staff have developed a new kind of treatment inspired by the methods that Florence Nightingale introduced 150 years ago. The goal is to inspire a complete change in the way people with dementia are treated in the healthcare system, shifting from medicine to care.
Filmmaker Jules Guarneri grew up in Villars among his adopted siblings in a chalet that is regularly haunted by the ghost of his mother. His father, head and guardian of the family chalets, films himself daily and hands over his cinematic legacy to Jules with the instruction that he should make his first film from it. Thus begins a tricky, intimate and at times pleasurable journey into Jules’ independence.
LE FILM DE MON PÈRE ultimately becomes a very different film from the one his father imagined. Jules Guarneri takes an empathetic and reflexive look at this somewhat neurotic family material and humorously performs a symbolic patricide on the cutting board. The resulting family portrait celebrated its world premiere at the Vision du Réel, where it was awarded the Jury Prize.
In Switzerland, a country of neutrality, new, unfamiliar voices are being heard. Voices of women who fight for the recognition of structural racism, deconstruct stereotypes and confess their double identity as Swiss and Black. It is in this context that Rachel M’Bon begins her own search for identity. On her way to liberation, she questions her past, her present and holds up a mirror to her country and her peers.
The strength and determination with which Rachel M’Bon confronts her past is the strength of this film, which represents an important step towards opening up a discourse that has been suppressed for too long. Together with filmmaker Juliana Fanjul, the Swiss-Congolese journalist interrogates her country and portrays six protagonists. Each of them tells a story that reflects her own personal path to liberation.
We show the film in combination with the short film ETHEREALITY by Kantarama Gahigiri.
Stranded in space for 30 years. How does it feel to finally come home? A reflection on migration and the sense of belonging.
Kantarama Gahigiri is a Rwandan-Swiss filmmaker. In 2004 she won the prestigious Fullbright Award and moved to New York where she completed her Masters in Film. Her first feature film TAPIS ROUGE was screened and awarded worldwide.