Simon Gutknecht

NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. James, a young journalist on his first deployment abroad, is faced with the absurd reality of news production and is forced to choose between his career and his moral code.

A featureless street on an industrial estate in Bonn – desolate, unfinished and inconspicuous. The street bears the name of a child. It is meant to commemorate the racially motivated terrorist attack that this child did not survive. A public memorial, consigned to no man’s land. A film against collective amnesia.

A film about the unprecedented Swiss grassroots movement of regular citizens who rise to aid thousands of refugees stranded at the European borders. In rich and safe Switzerland people from all backgrounds leave their regular life behind to support people in need. There is a Swiss farmer and his wife who keep cows in the Swiss Alps, a former commander of the Swiss Army, an elder rich lady residing at the lakeside, and a successful comedian and entertainer. These unexperienced volunteers take on an adventure that will change their lives forever.

The film follows five professional photographers in Los Angeles, Latin America, Paris, Berlin and Switzerland in their daily struggle to come by. It shows how digitalization and the internet affects and transforms their work deeply. It talks about the world as much as about the image of that world. It talks about pictures and their meaning and what they trigger in those who watch them.

Pensioner Roli comes to Fareed's assistance when the Syrian refugee is faced with the burial of his Muslim wife. Together they stumble into a bewildering forest of Swiss bureaucracy to which Roli finds beautifully simple answer.