In his 1964 film “La Suisse s’interroge”, Henry Brandt daringly tackles issues of social and political relevance such as migration policy, the role of the elderly in society, the training of youth, environmental damage and the role of Switzerland in a globalized world. This critical tradition is still vivid among contemporary Swiss cinema. Filmexplorer has collected five films that challenge the social and political status quo through various forms of expression: documentary, essay, fiction... Cyril Schäublin’s Dene wos guet geit evokes the superficiality of a society where the line between the public and the private, the real and the imaginary has become blurred – where there is no room for desire anymore. In his autobiographical film Die Gentrifizierung bin ich, Thomas Haemmerli explores the gentrification process in Zurich and other cites around the World – and acknowledges being an actor of it. More than a setting, Zurich is the raw material of Thomas Imbach’s Nemesis, in which the director films the building of a prison from his windows and reflects on the state of a society obsessed with security. While Dieter Fahrer investigates the Swiss newspaper industry in the digital age in Die vierte Gewalt, documentary filmmaker Daniel Schweizer exposes the ties between the Swiss economy and politics and contemporary forms of colonialism in Trading Paradise. curated by Emilien Gür
