CHoosing at Twenty

This 140-minute documentary takes a close look at the story and historical context of a young Swiss man who was beheaded during WW II for supposedly wanting to kill Hitler. The man's family cannot help clarify the issue since they say he had been pro-Nazi earlier. Other injustices or puzzling omissions come to the fore, such as a German who was against Hitler, survived torture by the SS, and then was not given any state aid when peace was restored. Another sequence shows an extensive U.S. archive of materials that identifies many Nazis and their activities -- but is not available to anyone trying to track down former war criminals. Like other films of this type, the documentary helps to fill in facts about WW II that are little-known, or slow in coming out.

In this docudrama, the real star is a railroad tunnel. First built, at the instigation of a banker and an engineer, in 1872 under appalling conditions, it was widened to accommodate automobiles in 1972. The tunnel links the Rhineland in Germany with Italy and goes through the Swiss mountains. The many lives lost in the building of the first tunnel were considered to be one of the costs for economic progress. In one re-enactment, a strike for better conditions is severely dealt with by the military. Even in 1972, though working conditions were better, most of the men working on the tunnel were poor immigrant workers, with almost no power to negotiate better treatment.

With three of his companions in a fatal gas-station robbery drowned while evading a police roadblock, the surviving young thug has no reason to turn himself in to the police, since they don't know about his existence. At least, that's the way his rescuer Bruno (Bruno Ganz) sees it. Besides, Bruno needs such an overly enterprising fellow to help him pull off a really big heist that he's been planning for a long time. It takes some doing, but the boy and his girlfriend are recruited by the older man, who has been keeping a low profile by working as a gardener.

Between the 1980s and 1990s, architect Mario Botta and painter Enzo Cucchi turned a common utopia into reality, engaging their respective imaginations to construct and decorate the chapel on Monte Tamaro, Ticino, 1,600 meters above sea level. Brimming with evocative elements, Villi Hermann’s documentary investigates the sacredness of a shared creative process in profound dialogue with nature.

A Canton Ticino family goes up for the weekend to the house in the mountains where the father spent his childhood. The journey to the valley, suffered at intervals by his wife and children, is an obsessive ritual for Alfredo, repeated week after week as he searches for his past.

Jullo, Edo, and Chiara: three teenagers among thousands. Three teenagers who live for sport. Jullo is his skateboard, Chiara conquers the world on skis, Edo is a graffiti artist. One day, Jullo, Chiara, and Edo suddenly discover their own lives, each in their own way. Fears, dreams, surprises, loneliness, insecurity, expectations, instability, imbalance. Then a moment, a second, a click. A click that leads them to rediscover themselves, that leads them into adulthood, or that relentlessly sweeps them away.

A mysterious lonely man and a young rebel woman, confront each other in a psychological drama about suspended identity.

Passionate for climbing, Allegra is victim of a terrorist attack, in which her friends lose their lives. She isolates herself after crushing fear towards people and a burning desire for revenge start devouring her. Her beloved ones are helpless. In order to be able to go back enjoying her life, she will have to face her inner struggles. In doing so, Arad – a young refugee from Middle East – crosses her path. Allegra’s greatest challenge will be regaining trust, especially when the element of diversity is involved.

Ambulance-chasing lawyers takes on the case of a convicted murderer who, just being released after doing 27 years in jail, claims he was innocent.

Haroun is an old bachelor who has lived in Oran for several years. A retired civil servant, he leads a reclusive life until the day he meets Kamel in a bar—a journalist to whom he tells an incredible story dating back to 1942. He claims to be the brother of ‘the Arab’ killed in a story told in one of the most famous novels of the 20th century, ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus. An Arab with an erased name: Moussa. Through anger, assertions, details, and confidences, Haroun finally convinces the journalist to listen to his story. His confession is a cry of freedom and distress—but above all, a cry of revolt: against an abusive mother, against a country that failed to achieve true independence, against a book, and against a famous French writer.

In 2022, an exhibition on the Swiss painter-sculptor Flavio Paolucci was planned in a German museum. The museum had reserved a white wall on which the artist was to create a work. Everything was ready, but the pandemic prevented the 88-year-old artist from travelling. So Flavio Paolucci had the idea of creating this mural in his studio and then destroying it.

Amidst the chaos of modern China, where megacities spring up at a dizzying pace, Swiss photographer Andreas Seibert has chosen to document the lives of the "mingong," the migrant workers who fuel the country's economic engine. Director Villi Hermann followed him in this endeavor for several years, immersing us in the photographer's eye and capturing the essence of his work on these forgotten souls. Seibert, with his lens, and Hermann, with his camera, weave together a poignant narrative that sheds light on the often-hidden reality of China's economic growth. "From Somewhere to Nowhere" is an ode to humanity in an ever-changing world, a reflection on the individual's place in the grand scheme of things, and a celebration of the power of photography as a means to capture the spirit of an era.