Dimitri Stapfer
It all begins in an empty theatre. In search of a manuscript that is supposed to change the world, Ben embarks on an odyssey. He encounters a flying fish, a telephone without a dial, an oracle called Enigma and a mystical canine figure in a deserted mountain landscape – reality and longings become inextricably intertwined on his visually stunning journey.
The sun enchants and warms, as it burns. Love and ambition as well. The female figure and antihero Zou, like the other two main characters, Anselm and Gustav, are the perfect prototypes of a generation. Dreaming, lost and bored in a society of “freedom”, where globalization and the revolution of social media have strongly shaken the love paradigma.
1945 Zero hour. Europe is reduced to rubble. Thirty million displaced and uprooted people. At the heart of this ravaged continent lies Switzerland. This small neutral country, which has been all but spared by the war, becomes a hub for Nazi war criminals, Allied Secret Services and Holocaust survivors.
Simon has a love-hate relationship with his father. When his parents go on holiday, Simon initiates a seductive game of cat-and-mouse with his father’s mistress and gets disastrously tangled up in the sticky family network.
Kevin lives in a time and place where everything is permitted and accepted. He wants to rebel – but against what? A tragicomedy about youth gasping for air in a cotton-candy world. A generation seeking a reason for its malaise and a way to shed the boredom – only to discover, at most, its own emptiness. That’s no way to start a revolution. Or perhaps?
Ferdi thinks he's ugly – but likes the fact Jona is interested in him. Maybe because she's blind. What Ferdi doesn't suspect: She's just pretending to be blind to be able to live cheaply in subsidized housing. How long can she maintain her charade? Can love, which is supposed to make you blind, even work out that way? Director Tom Lass takes a closer look, shooting with blind actors and old Berlin buddies, acting the lead himself – paying tribute to a way of life beyond our way of seeing the world.
The loss of youth and innocence can be played for comedy or tragedy. The stunning black-and-white cinematography and hypnotic electric guitar that fill "Left Foot Right Foot", as portentous as they are beautiful, are a pretty clear indication which side of the coin photographer Germinal Roaux intends to focus on in his first feature.
