Living Off Love

The film's principal character is Jean Neuenschwander, who left his home in French-speaking Switzerland in 1956 for Canada, where he was soon appointed manager of a large luxury hotel in Vancouver. In 1971, he bought a house in Tangiers where he settled down a few years later, at the age of 51, for a cosy and opulent retirement. “My Sweet Little Ass” is the account of his personal life, which Jean Neuenschwander clearly takes delight in recounting. He is a likeable hedonist who manages his affairs and his pleasures with considerable skill. From this somewhat comfortable existence, Simon Bischoff subtly extracts a group portrait of the homosexual subculture of Tangiers, which for some has the power of myth, particulary when frequented by characters such as Paul Bowles.

A team of intrepid adventurers attempt to scale one of Australia’s most dangerous climbing routes, Blade Ridge on Federation Peak. They are tested to their wits end by a combination of the Southwest Wilderness and the wettest winter ever recorded in Tasmania.

Aladdin’s parents separate when he is three. His father moves with him and his brothers to Tangier and re-marries. Then he leaves the family again and goes to Holland. Aladdin ends up on the street, sniffs glue, polishes shoes and keeps afloat by stealing. Years later, his father returns and finds Aladdin completely down and out. The boy steals from his own father and flees to the mountains, to Ketama. When an inner voice leads him back to Tangier, his father, to whom he is indebted, is dead: the trauma of his life. Desperate, he searches for a father figure and finds him in Felix, a foreign writer, who takes on the role of the magician in the story of initiation “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” from "Arabian Nights". He helps Aladdin to come up in the world and leads him to the discovery of his creative power – his “magic lamp”: Aladdin takes up painting and finally manages to reach his long-awaited getaway to paradise, Europe, where he meets his princess and marries her.