Anja Buczkowski

The film depicts life in Nepal’s leper colonies, where leprosy, now curable, is seen as a divine curse. During the monsoon, when gods leave the Kathmandu Valley, people face afflictions like leprosy. Nepal has 170,000 cases, with many severely disabled and ostracized due to fear and religious beliefs. Lacking support and medical care, they end up as beggars in cities.

Based on Annette Kolb’s autobiographical novel of the same name, THE SWING is a lavish, breathless reconstruction of life in Munich towards the end of the 19th century. The deceptively simple story centers around the Lautenschlags, a Bavarian-French Catholic family overflowing with artistry but short on practicalities like financial acumen.