The title means "The last postillion (stage-coachman) of the St.Gotthard-pass". A company of select people joins the horse-driven coach for crossing the center of the Alps over the traditional path high on the mountain valley. It is the time of railways as the means of modernization. A tunnel is going to be built. The new fast way would render useless the small transport industry from which local people had made their living. The great mountainous landscape is the background for the conflicts which arise between rich and poor, local traditionalists and foreign modernizers. The daughter of a local, who is opposed against the tunnel, would like to get engaged with a tunnel engineer, but is also coveted by a local favored by her father.
Matthias is the illegitimate son of a factory worker. He lives as an indentured child labourer at his dictatorial aunt’s remote guesthouse. The only thing he knows in life are hard work and hard punches. After a sudden death, the unhappy boy finds the opportunity to make his way to his mother. In collaboration with SRF, Cinémathèque suisse, Memoriav and Praesens Film, ZFF once again presents a freshly restored version of a Swiss cinema classic. This 1941 literary adaptation is an almost forgotten jewel of Swiss film history that offers an impressive insight into Eastern Switzerland’s embroidery industry. Born in 1930, a later chapter of the main actor Röbi Rapp’s life was portrayed in the multi-award winning docufiction DER KREIS.
Eddie, a muscular circus performer, catch one night a burglar. It is Paul who is stealing from his wealthy sister Eveline. He needs money for his opium abuse, caused by the unscrupulous dealer Van Straaten.
