Urs Augstburger

Freight

Onboard the Panerai container ship, the young sailor Rudmer dreams of becoming a captain himself one day.

Girl Gang

A contemporary fairy tale about a 14-year-old influencer from Berlin and her biggest fan. But life as a social media star has a shadow side that the adrenaline, fame and free sneakers can’t make up for.

Pushing Boundaries

PUSHING BOUNDARIES was one of the slogans of the Paralympics in Russian Sochi. During the games, this slogan was applied militarily by the Russian army towards the neighboring Ukraine. Overnight the Ukrainian National Team lost access to their training base in Crimea. The film accompanies 5 athletes with disabilities who try to adapt their private and professional lives to the circumstances and attempt the Paralympics qualification. After the competitions, where all the teams are celebrated as 'super-humane', they return to a tired society where new invalids are produced by the war.

Kind Regards From the Anthropocene

In Switzerland, four young adults explore, contemplate and, in the form of a letter, say goodbye to their favorite natural site. Stunningly beautiful forests, mountains, glaciers and lakes follow one another, like postcards trying in vain to freeze these landscapes soon transformed by the climatic catastrophes that this generation will inevitably witness. - Camille Kaiser

Burning Memories

At the age of 16, Alice was a victim of abuse. Fifty years later, this repressed experience unexpectedly makes its way back into her conscience. How is it possible to repress an incident for one’s entire life? How did it happen that she made films and wrote books always about children and violence? Alice walks with her accordion through the desert, searching for answers, looking at a phenomenon that affects many women in a similar or related way.

Ale

19-year-old Alessandra is a wrestling student. As a newbie, her goal is to develop a so-called "gimmick" for herself. A ring character of her own, which should become very similar to her due to her biographical cornerstones. This film documents this development process, which at the same time also represents an inner journey of self-discovery for Alessandra. But on her way to becoming a full-fledged wrestler her life changes in an unexpected way, which forces her to grow up faster than expected.

W. - What Remains of the Lie

A documentary about a biography that covers an entire century: the delusion of Bruno Wilkomirski, who wrote a celebrated book about his childhood as a concentration camp victim and was later revealed. How this deception came about, how the person concerned reflects on it from the distance of almost 20 years and what it says about our country and our time.

Wolves Return

Wolves divide and fascinate us. 150 years after they were driven to extinction in Central Europe, they are returning slowly but inexorably. Are they dangerous to humans? Is it possible to coexist? Using Switzerland as a point of departure, where wolves have returned in the very recent past, this documentary sheds light on the wolf situation in Austria, eastern Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, and even Minnesota, where freely roaming packs of wolves are more common sight.

Godless Occident

Europe is not a place, but an idea: Europa is a woman, and she is Greek; hers is a history so long, so full of wonders and horrors, of successes and failures, that the moral values that governed her existence have ended up changing radically over the centuries, to the point of losing any meaning and finally disappearing.

Naïma

«A heroine's quest» portrays the Muslim woman Naima Serroukh as she sets up her pilot project Tasamouh to combat religious extremism. Naima's story is told as she goes about her work as manager of the project and gives us an insight into the world of prevention work. Besides her search for financing and partners, her personal conflicts, she gives advice to distraught mothers, coaches young people and tries to provide them with support in their integration process. «A heroine's quest» paints the portrait of a strong woman, who has come to accept that progress can only be made in tiny baby steps, but at the end of the day, it's all about making life together a bit better. A portrait of an everyday heroine. An impression of the Muslim community in the fight against prejudice.

Passion - Between Revolt and Resignation

Almost 50 years ago, women and men all over the word dreamed of changing the world. What is left today of the expectations and the hopes of the people that flooded the streets? Not much, unfortunately. The filmmaker examines episodes from his own life, trying to understand how they fit—if they do at all—with the major changes of the world that hint all at a catastrophe in the waiting.

Golden Age

Who said that old age has to be boring? Golden Age opens the doors to the Palace, a retirement home of the kind that you have never seen before, in Miami. Gildings, ostentatious chandeliers, marble floors; like a cross between a luxury hotel and an Americanised copy of Versailles, the place is presented by its developers as the most beautiful retirement home in the Unites States.

Isola

We enter the film, like we access Gorgona, by the sea. A rock bristling with greenery, surrounded by the dark blue waves of the Mediterranean. On this small island between Tuscany and Corsica, there is an agricultural penal colony. The prisoners held there are free to move around, working the vines, the small pig farm or the vegetable garden surrounding the prison buildings. Here, the relationship to nature is particular and undoubtedly redeeming.

Almost There

Three men embark on a journey in search of meaning and happiness in the autumn of their lives: Bob swaps his safe home for a camper van and tries to find himself in the barren Californian desert; Steve, drag queen and stand-up comedian, is fed up of England and makes amends with his past in Benidorm; Yamada rediscovers his smile by reading stories to children in Tokyo.

Zen for Nothing

Hidden in the wooded mountains on the west coast of Japan lies the small Zen monastery Antaiji. A young woman sets off to immerse herself through autumn, winter and spring in the adventures of monastic life. The young woman is Sabine Timoteo from Switzerland. The abbot of the monastery is Muho Noelke, born in Berlin. An interplay between the philosophy of the Japanese Zen master Kodo Sawaki and the surprises brought forth by everyday life.

Tibetan Warrior

The true story of one man's fight for freedom. For more than 60 years Tibetans have been fighting Chinese oppression. But their non-violent struggle appears to be in vain. Now, as a new form of peaceful protest, Tibetans are setting themselves on fire. Loten Namling - an exiled Tibetan and musician living in Switzerland - is deeply disturbed by such self-destructive action. So he sets off from Europe to India, on a one-man mission to meet top politicians, experts and young radicals. He himself becomes increasingly radical and is on the verge of violent protest. Finally he ends up at The Office of the Dalai Lama in India to seek the advice of the exiled Tibetan leader.

Watermarks - Three Letters from China

Based on three different places, the film portrays the infractions to which people living in modern day China are subjected due to rapid developments: in the deceptively idyllic Yangshuo in the rainy south; in the apocalyptic coal mining site of Wuhai in the parched north; and in Chongqing, the urban behemoth on the Yangtze River. The protagonists give their accounts of the unsurmounted past, the precarious present and their tentative steps into the future. The film thus paints a complex image of the mental state of the people in this complicated country.

Angry Monk - Reflections on Tibet

Schaedler's film tells the fascinating story of Tibetan monk Gendun Choephel whose robes ultimately proved to be too constricting for his imagination and intellect. Born in 1903, Choephel left an indelible mark on Tibetan culture and became an icon for young Tibetans today. Because of his political views he was persecuted by the Tibetan government and died a broken man in 1951. The film follows in the footsteps of the rebel monk whose intellect challenged the ancient traditions of old Tibet. Journeying through Tibet and India, “Angry Monk” provides a vivid picture of Tibet that is in refreshing contrast to its often idealized and esoteric image.