Mathias Gnädinger

Hunkeler's last official act went awry: a diamond courier evaded surveillance, the goods ended up in the Basel sewage system, and Lüdi suffered life-threatening injuries. Plagued by guilt, pensioner Hunkeler goes in search of the "silver pebbles". Ultimately, even as a retiree, he is ahead of the pack with his sense of the longings of the little people.

His last big journey took him from Stein am Rhein to faraway Japan. Theo Plakoudakis and Marco Salituro had developed the script especially for Mathias Gnädinger. And so the popular actor filled the role of "Big Summer" with a lot of heart: The former wrestling king Anton Sommer is forced by the ten-year-old boy Hiro to accompany him to Japan. Hiro wants to become a sumo wrestler like his father. Zurich-based Stefan Jäger has staged a modern fairy tale that becomes an endearing homage to Mathias Gnädinger. He died on Good Friday 2015.

When Hans looks back, he must say: That was a good life! He saw the world, loved his wife Martha and yes, two, three things went wrong. But that doesn't need to be talked about. And now? Two years ago Martha died, Hans can barely manage his daily routine anymore, and after a visit to the vet his beloved dog Miller doesn't return home. Hans is tired. Basically he can't be bothered anymore. He wants to die. But one doesn't talk about this. At best maybe with Willi, his friend. He trusts in him, he considers him as his ally, who should help him implement his plan...

Even in retirement, Hunkeler cannot give up investigating. In Basel, a theater director is murdered, and his body is found with its eyes missing.

The story of two pensioners, Max Wanner and Fritz Pollatschek. Wanner needs a new liver, Pollatschek a new heart. But how are two men in their seventies supposed to get hold of a donor organ? A hair-raising and eventful search begins...

In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Russian Army closing in from the east and the Allied Expeditionary Force attacking from the west. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his generals and advisers to fight to the last man. When the end finally does come, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.

No synopsis available yet.

A group of actors making their way to Rome ends up losing its way due to the fog, the darkness, the ice and their own feelings of guilt, suddenly getting completely lost in the hills.

In letters to her idol, Brad Pitt, twelve-year-old Tina Vonlanthen pours out her heart about what life in a small Swiss border town on the Rhine is like: trouble with her older sister, twenty-year-old Babs, "who still hasn't found a man," and worries about her single father Urs, who has been so distracted lately. But it is neither spinsterhood nor Alzheimer's that the Vonlanthens suffer from. Rather, it is the small and large love affairs that they try to keep secret from each other: Babs' lover is her married German boss—and Urs' girlfriend is Caroline, a black woman from Cameroon. At the local big event, the "fish dinner," everything comes out in the open—and Tina also has some heart-pounding experiences that she prefers to keep quiet about in her letters to Brad...

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

A summer of the century in Basel – but no vacation for Inspector Hunkeler. Instead of spending time with his partner Hedwig in Alsace, he has to take on a murky case: his family doctor, a liberal politician well known in the city, has been found murdered in her practice. A few drug addicts who had been supplied with methadone by her come under suspicion. But Hunkeler's instinct for the depths of the human psyche leads him unerringly down a different path.

Swiss allotment gardener Livius is murdered in his garden on French soil. The case must therefore be investigated by both the Swiss and French police. This leads to friction between the two forces. To make matters worse, Hunkeler has to cut short his vacation.

Franz Engi returns to his hometown after being away for 30 years. A lot of things have changed in that time. There are only few families with children left in the village and that is why the school is about to be closed down. Franz decides to save the school and teacher Eva's job in a very unusual way....

Two dead with their earlobes slashed. Inspector Hunkeler believes that the brothel owner Garzoni is the culprit. However, his colleagues Madörin and Lüdi are researching the drug milieu. Then prosecutor Suter withdraws Commissioner Hunkeler from the case because of bias. Has Hunkeler grown old? The third film adaptation of a case with the Basel inspector Hunkeler based on the novel by Hansjörg Schneider.

The idyllic tranquility of a mountain village is disrupted one day by a deliberately triggered avalanche. No one can leave the village. The perpetrator, Reto Lauenstein, is himself a villager. He threatens to bury the entire village under a series of avalanches if the residents do not execute Adalbert Jentsch, the real murderer of his son who was killed a year ago, within 24 hours. The old man's innocence has been proven, but suddenly it is called into question again. The explosives in the slopes of the Alps are ticking, and Reto will not be dissuaded from his plan. But the village policeman Daniel, Adalbert's son, does not give up the race against time.

A daft road movie about two aging thesps in search of Klopfenstein himself.

Roni Beck is a man whose only thought in life is to become a professional comedian, but who due to his lack of success must live hidden in his mother's appartment in an old people's home, continuing to believe firmly that his day in the limelight will come. One day Serge Grätzer, the director of the old people's home, discovers Roni, and makes him help out with the work. Serge then decides to take a hand in Roni's career, embezzling money to launch the budding comedian. Once again however success eludes Roni. In the end Serge decides to fulfil his own secret longings to be on the stage. This leads to a row between the two men. Despite a reconciliation, they never again appear together on the stage. And when Serge's embezzlement is discovered he has to flee with the police at his heels and the home has to be closes. In the end, Roni persuades Mr. Klein, an eccentric old man who likes to play the stock market, to save the home with the millions he has stashed away.

Turkish woman Aische Aydin is found beaten to death in her apartment in Basel. Her husband Ali is suspected, but remains silent and attempts suicide. Inspector Hunkeler cannot accept this. An amulet—depicting a couple in a boat—found at the crime scene catches his attention. Hunkeler has encountered such an amulet before, when he was investigating Roma clans in Alsace. Acquaintances of the Aydins confirm that the amulet belonged to neither Aische nor Ali. Shortly afterwards, Theo, the heroin-addicted ex-husband of a friend of Aische's, is found murdered. The police find a large quantity of heroin. The Aydins are now also linked to drug trafficking.

The psychiatrist Simon embarks with his newly wed Paula on a wedding trip to Marmorera, the home of his ancestors. The body of a young woman is found on the shore of the reservoir. A little later, the same woman - alive but without an identity - was taken to the Psychiatric University Clinic Burgholzli in Zurich, where Simon works. The idea of ​​the film is based on a true story: in 1954 the entire old Marmorera was demolished and flooded to prevent protests against the planned dam above the village. Only the cemetery with the bones of the dead was moved.

Hardly back from America in her home village, the young mountain guide Andrea Stamm is called to a rescue operation. The wife of the contractor Baumberger has an accident. A murder? The whole village mourns, but Andreas's father Robert Stamm can not believe in an accident. The former police officer, who was sent against his will in early retirement, is convinced that Baumberger killed his wife. After initial hesitation, Andrea gives credence to her father's suspicions and begins to investigate. The television movie Steinschlag is an exciting Swiss crime drama based on the novel by Emil Zopfi.

In a village in eastern Turkey, tales of the economic success of Turks in Switzerland inspire Haydar to convince his wife Meryem that they must go. He sells their livestock and small plot of land in exchange for passage for two. He wants to leave their seven children in the care of the eldest and his parents; his father advises him to take one son to be educated in Europe. Will anyone reach the land of promise?

It's 1922. A weather observer and his wife live in a remote cabin high in the Swiss Alps. As this drama begins, they are being joined by a third person, an Austrian who coveted the job the Swiss man had won in this bleak location. Not only that, but he also has his eyes on the Swiss man's lovely wife. The Austrian has charm, so he wins some hospitality from the couple. The three live together for a little while, but the rivalry between the two men soon erupts with tragic consequences.

The story of some young people who grew up in a working-class area in Zurich in the late 1950s. The plain living style of their educators is not on their wavelength. They find the occurrences in the newly opened Jazz club much more tempting. Down there is what must not be up there: spontaneous lust for life. Jazz electrifies them all. And then there are the girls ...

Senator Isaak Kohler shoots and kills Professor Winter in a crowded restaurant, while Winter is dining with the struggling idealistic young lawyer, Felix Spat. Kohler puts up no defense and is sentenced to twenty years. Kohler then gets his daughter Helene to pay the reluctant Spat to reinvestigate the case, on the assumption that Kohler is innocent. The newspapers pick up on this and begin to question whether Kohler was wrongly convicted.

For young priest Strobel, a bus trip from Lake Constance to Lourdes turns into an ordeal. Accompanying a group of Catholic pilgrims, he not only has to deal with a recalcitrant bus driver and an overly serious nun. He is horrified to discover that his lover Theresa has stowed away among his flock. She corners him, forcing him to finally reveal their relationship. After all, she is expecting his child. As the bus trip turns into a grueling odyssey, Strobel struggles to keep his double life hidden.

It is carnival time in Munich and participants are overindulging in alcohol and sensual pleasures. "Follow us into madness" beckons Lys who is drunk on life, but the sensitive Henry does not follow him. Lys has betrayed his fiancé, as Henry once betrayed his lost love Anna. In memory of Anna and his cruel Dickensian childhood, Henry challenges Lys to a duel to try to appease his guilt.

In 1939, after barely escaping the Nazis, a Gypsy family returns to Switzerland only to be torn apart by racial persecution in the benign guise of children's welfare. This fictionalized story of Jana, an eight-year-old Gypsy girl snatched from her parents and consigned to a life of orphanages and bleak foster homes, is based on a little-known chapter of Swiss history: From 1926 to 1972, the state-supported Pro Juventute, a children's aid foundation, forcibly removed some 700 Gypsy children from their families, in order to sever the ties with their culture and assimilate them to a "better way of life." The underlying aim was to preempt a new generation's caravans from following their nomadic traditions along Switzerland's country lanes.

A battle-scarred, has-been Hungarian cop, tormented by his memories of nearly killing an innocent woman in his custody, enters into a Faustian pact in which he trades his soul for a handful of "magic" bullets that always hit the mark. A mysterious and mythical story.

Bingo and Sturzi became friends in prison and have big plans. After their release, they both want to turn their backs on a life of crime and emigrate to Brazil. When Sturzi is released from prison six months after Bingo, he discovers that his friend is still broke and even has criminal plans again. Sturzi, who has grown older and wiser in prison, is deeply disappointed, but wants to generously pay for the plane tickets out of his small fortune. His guardian disagrees: Sturzi is to go to a men's shelter and pay off his debts first. When he witnesses how amateurishly Bingo and his buddy Schorschi are planning a bank robbery, the old professional in Sturzi awakens.

Before Ernst Winckelmann, a sales representative for hair products, calls on hairdressing salons and chemist's shops, he rehearses what he intends to say, shakes the dandruff from his hair and slips into an innocuous pair of shoes. None of this helps. Winkelmann is no sales talent and his product is a failure. Meanwhile, in a small corner pub in the Barmbek district of Hamburg, Winkelmann's young girlfriend Aline uses some firm but gentle persuasion to make the last customer leave. Not much doing tonight. During the day, Rüdiger the barman, pulls most of the beers for the landlord, Aline's father, who survives on memories of good times at Miami Beach...

During World War II, Switzerland severely limited refugees: "Our boat is full." A train from Germany halts briefly in an isolated corner of Switzerland. Six people jump off seeking asylum: four Jews, a French child, and a German soldier. They seek temporary refuge with a couple who run a village inn. They pose as a family: the deserter as husband, Judith as his wife, an old man from Vienna as her father, his granddaughter and the French lad, whom they beg to keep silent, as their children. Judith's teenage brother poses as a soldier. The fabrication unravels through chance and the local constable's exact investigation. Whom will the Swiss allow to stay? Who gets deported?

Antonio, a 20-year-old young man, works on the assembly line at a bread factory and dreams of a future in Australia. One day, he meets Manuela, a blonde German au pair who is particularly enthusiastic about fast cars and fashionable clothes. Antonio does everything he can to win her over and ends up in conflict with the law. A story about being young in Switzerland in the 1980s, which remains inconsequential despite the controversial nature of the topics it addresses.

After the death of his mother, a lonely farmer in rural Switzerland considers finally starting a family of his own. Eventually he pays for a bride from Thailand. The couple don't share a language, but being to know each other. However the village neighbors are suspicious of foreigners.

Swiss provincial politics can be a minefield...

Julia and Romeo are two disenchanted lovers who want to break up but are unwilling to suffer the pain. After a nasty fight, Romeo storms off and unsuccessfully vents his frustration with a black prostitute. While visiting the ramshackle brothel, he sees a strange man, who may be a government official, handing over a huge wad of money. Later, he and Julia reunite and go to an upscale golden anniversary party. There a handsome American flirts with Julia. After yet another row, Romeo and Julia retire to the balcony for a love scene. Unfortunately, their making up is interrupted by a sudden power outage. When the lights go back on, Romeo finds the knifed corpse of the party's hostess at his feet. Naturally, he's accused of the crime, but before the other partygoers can get him, he and Julia flee into the Berlin summer night. Their strange series ensuing adventures comprise the rest of the film.

Fifty years after graduating from school, Senta von Meissen invites eight former school friends to a class reunion at her castle. The table is set for ten people. One place remains empty: Teddy, the hostess's former school sweetheart, died in an accident on her graduation trip to the Rhine Falls. But was it really an accident? The evening turns into a murderous act of revenge.

In this interesting World War I drama, Bruno Ganz gives a compelling performance as Jakob, an obsessive inventor who lives in a Swiss village. He receives unconditional support from his friend Otti (Walo Luond), but that is about all; the other villagers do not tolerate Jakob's eccentricities very well, and regard him as a crackpot. He perserveres in spite of this obstacle and finally invents a viable carriage that does not run on wheels but on a tread. Unfortunately for Jakob, the military have already come up with the same invention: the tank. The discovery finally breaks him, and he is quickly shuttled off to an asylum.

In the 1770s, Swiss farmer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi established a school for poor orphaned children in the Aargau. Up to total exhaustion he sacrificed himself for his pedagogical theories. Five years later, the project of the idealistic educator failed after bloody attacks of the French. In retrospect, the disappointed Pestalozzi experiences the last few months with "his" children.

Train driver Leo Mangold has been living alone in his two-room apartment for years. His colleague Adrian Hauser is married and having an affair with Thai go-go dancer Apia. To ensure that she does not lose her residence permit, Adrian asks his friend Leo to marry Apia, and Leo agrees. To deceive the immigration authorities, Apia has to move in with Leo, much to his displeasure. They begin to fall in love with each other. Adrian is not happy about this. Nightclub owner Willi also puts pressure on the couple because he wants to place Apia in a massage parlor.

No synopsis available yet.

Constable Studer of the Bern cantonal police is stubborn and gnarled. Because of his nature, he has few friends. He has this in common with the murder victim: James Farny was known by everyone as "The Chinese". The man had traveled the world and now he has been found shot dead in the village cemetery: was it murder or did he kill himself? He had the gun in his hand. Studer doesn't believe it was suicide...

Without knowing it, Alfred and Julia live in a land of pure invention. It is the richest and most beautiful land in the world. From a height, this land looks like a piece of felt, from close up like a clean and tiny park. The footpaths are lined with benches and the streets with banks. Alfred and Julia have been married for 8 years, are childless, and live on the 16th floor of a new building. Thanks to their various crises, they have got to know each other somewhat better, but their most outstanding characteristic remains their mediocrity. On Friday, August 12th 1977, a mysterious epidemic breaks out in their country. The mass media ensure that the news is widely broadcast. The authorities order a ban on information, but those concerned break their imposed silence. On Sunday evening, it becomes known that the epidemic was nomore than a kind of "dress rehearsal" for a real emergency. Alfred and Julia continue to live in a land of pure invention - but now they are conscious of the fact.

No synopsis available yet.

No synopsis available yet.

Rainer von Hessen and Niki de Saint Phalle met after he saw a photo of HON, the 1966 installation for Moderna Museet Stockholm, in a German magazine. Their collaboration began when Saint Phalle first designed the costumes and sets to Aristhophanes’s LYSISTRATA, directed by Hessen (then known under the stage name Diez). Thereafter, Hessen co-authored and directed her play ICH, which was performed at the Staatstheater Kassel in 1968.