Let The Old Folks Die

Heidi, is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather. She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara, a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather.

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of a Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

After a landslide in the Axenstrasse, geologist Mara Graf and her boyfriend, seismologist Gian Wyss, are investigating for the Seismological Service of the University of Technology in Switzerland. For Gian this is a good opportunity to spend some weeks of Spring at home. For Mara to be with her grandmother and sister. The next day Mara Gian want to anchor indicators at the bottom of Lake Lucerne in a dive. They decide to dive alone. Before Mara could follow him, an explosion rocked their ship.

16-year old Steffi just graduated from high school and is very much looking forward to her class trip to Paris where she has promised her boyfriend Fabian the romantic night that she has kept him waiting for so long. Her lifelong plan to join the police forces is already set up, her adult life is right around the corner. At a routine health check-up, just before the trip to Paris, Steffi and her parents are faced with a shattering diagnosis ...

Talented swimmer, motivated apprentice, cool buddy: Beyto is in the midst of life. But when the only son of a Turkish migrant family falls in love with his coach Mike, an ideal world falls to pieces. His parents only see one way out: They lure him to their home village and plan his wedding with Seher, his childhood friend. Suddenly, Beyto finds himself in a disruptive love triangle.

Mario is a promising young footballer in Switzerland on his way to the top, closing in on the success he and his father always dreamed of. But when the talented striker Leon joins the team, they'll get caught up between the politics of the game and the politics of love, as rumours and prejudice threaten their careers and everything they've managed to build.

1940, Switzerland: the last civilian execution in the country’s history. The man condemned to die was a triple murderer. Almost no one called for mercy. And yet, one voice did. The widow of his final victim chose to plead for his life. What inner strength does it take to forgive the man who destroyed your family? And what does such an act reveal – not only about guilt and justice, but about the limits of compassion?

Conflict-avoidant Thomas just wants a relaxing holiday in the Swiss Alps. But, it's a slippery slope from the beginning. In an effort to repair his own family ties and to impress his boss, he takes his family and his employer's daughter with him. Tragedy strikes and Thomas feels responsible. Should he be his typical passive self? Or risk doing the right thing at the expense of his relationships with his family and employer?

Lubo Moser is a jenisch, a gypsy. Mirana, who tried to oppose him, was killed. But how could this have happened? Why? Because Switzerland considers nomadism a social scourge, and, to eradicate it, it takes the children of the jenisch. Thus, without children, the Jenisch will be without a future. The mastermind is a state-run humanitarian institution, Pro Juventute, the arm the Street Children's Work: everything is perfectly legal and there is no opposition to the law. Lubo feels himself dying. And something about him really does die, on that night of wind and snow: it will be a new Lubo, tough and impenetrable, who will set up a project with unexpected implications to avenge his family and his people... and it will lead us to rethink the sense of justice, in the blurred boundaries between good and evil.

North Friesland today: After the death of his father-in-law, Hauke Haien takes on two important roles in coastal protection - dyke count and director of coastal protection. Professionally, Hauke is the best man for the job; he is a visionary who lives and thinks in harmony with nature. Only people are not his cup of tea. As a loner, Hauke hardly knows how to inspire an audience and win over fellow campaigners. His warnings about the effects of climate change are dismissed as hysteria in the village, even though the coastal inhabitants know that a drastic change of course in climate policy is unavoidable. Fortunately for Hauke, his wife Elke supports him. She manages to make him heard. But Hauke does not enjoy his success for long, because when it becomes known that his plans are much more radical, he is met with incomprehension and anger. Resistance and pressure wear on him. Disaster can no longer be averted.

Without a permanent home and the security of a social network, a 16-year-old girl comes to a city to find a friend and perhaps even a companion. On her wanderings through the city, she meets him in the middle of a crowd. They spend a day together and are separated while stealing from a supermarket. Now the girl is on her own again and is once more confronted with her loneliness.

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.

After a terrible fight with her conservative parents, 19-year-old Mina moves in with her sister Mandy, who works a prostitute. Mina finds love when she meets Tony, a DJ with financial problems. But two sinister debt collectors give them a drastic ultimatum: they have three days to raise 11 000 Euros. Mandy’s advice to Mina is a diabolic one: to sell the costliest thing she possesses, her virginity.

A pensioner with many phobias realises one day that four million francs have been mistakenly deposited into his account. Instead of notifying the bank, he makes an unexpected decision: he withdraws the money and flees on his moped.

A gifted pair of lovers: Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky, co-founder of the German modern-art movement "Blauer Reiter." While he was granted fame, artistic and financial recognition, she wasted away in his shadow.

When Borchert receives an anonymous message that a certain Franz Brosi is innocent, law firm boss Dominique can hardly believe it. After all, Brosi was her first client as a public defender a few years ago and had actually confessed. The two are investigating the case.

Maravan, aged 24, is a Tamil asylum seeker in Switzerland, working as casual help in a highly rated, gourmet restaurant in Zurich. It is also well below his own standards, because he is a gifted and highly passionate cook. In Sri Lanka his grandmother initiated him in the culinary arts, not least in the secrets of aphrodisiacal cuisine. When Maravan loses his job his colleague Andrea persuades him into a deal of the special kind: a joint catering venture for love menus.

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.

Silver Forest is a brutally realistic coming-of-age story, set in a small Swiss town in a bleak winter landscape. A group of boys struggle with their mounting anger with the mundane world, resulting in a string of escalating acts of violence. Deep in the forest they finally find a release for their aggression by joining a Nazi gang - only to discover the boundaries where harmless play turns into murder.

After WWII, Helene is ready to do anything to start a new life. As a young woman, she came to the exciting Berlin of the roaring 20s, wanting to become a doctor, and soon fell in love with a man named Karl. But the course of her life took a drastic, irreversible turn when the Nazis came into power.

A mysterious concierge guides us through stories that unfold in the same room over a century. A Jewish businessman celebrates a lonely family festivity with his daughter. A planned suicide leads to a life-changing encounter. An ageing rock band struggles with their image, and a young woman sees a callboy as her big chance for financial independence.

In the 1970s, an idealistic young social worker is confronted with Switzerland's archaic mental health institutions.

The film takes us back in time, to a relatively recent yet forgotten period in history, when many women like Lina were forced to fold in the face of unfair and blinkered authorities. The victim of an administrative internment aimed at re-educating her after her so-called "depraved behaviour", Lina finds herself completely abandoned, confused and humiliated. In present day, when she is 60 years old, for the first time in her life, our brave protagonist can finally "spill the beans", thus freeing herself of a burden that has threatened to destroy her all these years.

Liv Sandor, 38, following an argument with her boyfriend, sets off to wander the city, observing passers-by and reminiscing about her past loves. In all her relationships, there was always a turning point, when things started going downhill. On the streets of Zurich Liv faces her fears, joys and demons. In her third feature film, Swiss director Anna Luif tells the tragi-comical trajectory of an independent woman who learns to love on life’s emotional rollercoaster. A rhythmic, colourful, collage-like journey into the mind and soul of modern women.

In the lush Swiss countryside, single mom Judith is raising her young daughter Milla while running the family fish farm with the help of worker and friend Gabriel. The three live and labor quietly in their peaceful corner of the world. When the unexpected arrival of Gabriel’s brother threatens that tranquility, the specter of impending disaster casts a shadow over their pastoral life. When the devastation comes, it’s chilling. This taut thriller poses provocative questions about the weight of guilt, the complexity of forgiveness, and the price of redemption.

Raimund Gregorius, having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves political and emotional intrigue and the highest possible stakes. His voyage is one that transcends time and space, delving into the realms of history, medicine and love, all in search of true meaning to his life.

Mona’s days are filled with concern for her mother, a woman broken by her belief that her nightmares are real. In search of answers, Mona arrives in a village where she encounters an old family curse in a strange hotel.

When five friends discover a mysterious film reel that inspires their imagination, all long-awaited dreams seem to come true - even the dark ones.

In 2016 the sun has turned the entire world into a scorched and barren wasteland. The humans who have survived are either resourceful or violent, and sometimes both. Marie, her little sister Leonie, and best friend Phillip, are in a car headed to the mountains - rumor has it there is water there. Along the way they meet Tom, a first-rate mechanic. But can they trust him? Fraught with deep distrust, the group is lured into an ambush where their real battle for survival begins.

Late 18th century: In the midst of the picturesque but unforgiving Swiss mountains, 12-year-old Georg finds himself stranded with the monks on the Great St. Bernard Pass. His new life consists of cold, loneliness, and work—until he rescues a puppy from starvation.

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.

The neo-noir thriller EARLY BIRDS tells the story of the two wildly different women Annika and Caro, who become embroiled in a web of unpredictable events following a night out on the town. As the two flee together from the police, drug dealers and themselves, they're confronted by the collision of two worlds: their personal freedom and unrelenting violence.

Young and rebellious Eva despises her mother who married shady business man Michael and is living with him and his two daughters in a luxurious country house. When Eva overhears that a supposedly illegal delivery of uncut diamonds is about to go down on Ascencion Day she sees an opportunity to get rich and start a new life elsewhere. Together with her boyfriend Hanno and his buddy Dominik she plans a robbery during which nobody is supposed to be harmed. However, things go terribly wrong and a spiral of violence and revenge starts to spin.

Former undertaker and ex-police officer Luc Conrad comes back to Switzerland to attend a birthday party in a hotel. When the hotel manager dies under mysterious circumstances, he secretly begins to investigate whether it was a murder.

A director desperately tries to replicate his debut success by strictly adhering to the golden rules of arthouse filmmaking on set. But luck is not on his side. Neither the cast nor the crew believe in the project – and nobody wants to film the nude scene that, according to the director, is absolutely essential!