SMS From Shangri-La

Two dissimilar types – the earnest impassive Bede and the easy-going Luki – suddenly find themselves thrown together. Their difficulties with women, the world, each other and themselves force them to search together for their own way. Hesitant and somewhat helpless, they turn to each other. Thus begins an obstacle race that is not without ist amusing side.

On June 22, 1991, photographer Chäschpu misses the decisive goal in the Swiss Cup final. His entire life, he has successfully stumbled through his permanent provisional existence. On this day, Graszena memorizes the drinks menu of her new employer. She takes what life as a foreign waitress has to offer. Tina, the student from the countryside, runs away from home. But she always does that. Night nurse Lucie lives in her world of books. No wonder she sleepwalks and has to put up bars before going to bed. Özgür from Turkey is different: he dreams of great happiness. And because that is so hard to find, he imagines he has already found it. Here in Switzerland, of course. What connects these five very different characters?

Documentary film.

An avant-garde documentary film on English guitarist, composer and improviser Fred Frith.

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.

Three individuals from different backgrounds discuss the nature of vision from strikingly different perspectives in this Swiss documentary. Peter Berman is a professional actor who has developed a tumor that has severely impacted his sight; he discusses his condition, and how it has affected his perceptions and his craft. Monie Neziane is a young woman who has gone blind; she speaks of her memories of light and images and how blindness has led her to a new way of seeing. And Bruno Netter, an artist who paints landscapes in the Swiss countryside, whose sense of light, shadow, and color are the basis of his work, explains how creating a painting is much more than a matter of seeing with one's eyes.

The Internet has changed everything, also for journalism: business models are falling by the wayside, news is available for free, anywhere and at any time.

David, a recently fired scrapyard worker and Marie, a prostitute, both about 20 years old, meet on New Year's Eve in Berlin and decide to run away together. As David's arm is plastered from an accident Marie continues to prostitute herself to finance their restless journey through the Ruhr area. Their love and their will to survive guide them though all problems.

My parents want us to inherit their life's work. We must talk. About expectations and ideals. About privileges and burdens. But also, about money.

Movie about prisoners in prison "Thorberg"

The path to Yusef Lateef was a journey into the unknown. We were aware that he is one of the great maestros of jazz and one of the last of his generation still alive. In an era of black culture that probably found its strongest form of expression in music, he was a contemporary and companion of those musicians who helped to shape and renew jazz: John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley. Now, at the age of 84, Yusef Lateef lives withdrawn in his house in the woods somewhere in New England – in a room full of musical instruments. He still plays his saxophone today, as he has done for most of his life. (Humbert & Penzel)

The film interweaves the stories of two generations of Palestinians. It tells the story of Elias Jubran, a music teacher and oud maker from Al Jaleel (Galilee), and his children, who live in a totally different way in Israel... or who have left the country in search of a more open way of life. The film shows what it takes for a culture - mired in the threatening environment of the State of Israel - to continue to thrive.