FRS - Das Kino der Nation

This warm documentary narrates the intense life of Alfonsina Storni. A polyphony of intentional voices to account for the impossible: the first person who narrates to refer to the voice of the poet; his great-granddaughter recites from the present; several testimonies of their biographies explain their behaviors, their positions, their tendencies. However, the interesting thing is that nobody can give an exact account of who Alfonsina was and how she thought.

Directed by Christoph Kühn.

The film tells of the radical life-search by the Swiss writer Paul Nizon, born 1929 in Bern, Switzerland, who became what “he was meant to be” in Paris. Now 90-year-old, Paul Nizon grants insights into his life and work in a self-ironic, direct manner. The intimate portrait of a great literary outsider emerges, for whom the risk of life and the risk of writing merge into one and the same work of art.

The documentary retraces the steps of Bruno Manser, a man from Switzerland who went to live with the indigenous tribe of the Penan in the Jungle of Borneo and endef up helping their struggle to defend their rainforest against greedy logging companies. The movie features original film, photo and voice recordings by Bruno Manser made in the 1980s, as well as new recordings showing how the life of the Penan has changed in just a few decades.