Praesens-Film

The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession.

French Guyana, not so long ago. Eliott, a young and naive anthropology researcher, goes on an expedition to study the Otopis, a mysterious tribe from the Amazon rainforest. It is also an opportunity for him to get away from the grip of his possessive mother, Chantal de Bellabre, an ethnologist hated by the profession for her biased and cold-hearted practices. Arriving in the forest Elliot realizes the Otopis are not the “good savages” he had imagined. Alcoholic, violent, crooked: they will turn his expedition into real hell in the jungle. Fortunately, Chantal, consumed by remorse and worried about her son, decides to abandon her own expedition and goes looking for him in the jungle, with the help of the not so helpful Lieutenant-Commander Raspailles and his men.

In postwar Germany, a displaced Czech boy, separated from his family during wartime, is befriended by an American GI while the boy's mother desperately searches for him.

Escaping a Nazi prison train in war-torn Italy, an American and a British soldier set out for the Swiss border and find themselves leading a multi-national party of refugees for the Italian underground.

When a young European woman assumes a false identity in 1920s Argentina, she gets more than she bargained for.

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.

Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the unpaid back rent. The young man, brother of the protagonist Anni, removes his wristwatch and throws himself from a window out of despair. Shortly thereafter his family is evicted from their apartment. Now homeless, the family moves into a garden colony of sorts with the name “Kuhle Wampe.”

Heidi, a young orphan girl living with her aunt in Frankfurt, is forced to move to the Swiss Alps to live with her ornery grandfather. At first, he resents her presence, but, after a short while, Heidi manages to pierce his gruff exterior, and the two become close. She also befriends a young shepherd named Peter. After three years, Heidi's aunt arrives and demands Heidi's return to Frankfurt.

While on a longer business trip, a wannabe poet urges his beautiful but more simple wife to answer his overly swollen love letters. With no idea how to respond she forwards the letters to a new young school teacher to use his answers instead...

In the dense and murky woodlands of provincial Hungary, the search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession enshrouded by irresolution and despair, even long after he has been taken off the case. What emerges is not a crime story, but a harrowing venture through the darkness of the human soul.

Farmer Heiri has sold his calf and celebrates his temporary wealth in the big city. But in doing so he is confronted with many temptations and dangers: pickpockets, second-rate artists and prostitutes who all try to grab the money of this naive man from Hausen. A 1978 recording of the well-known Zurich boulevard theatre piece.

The Village (German: Sie fanden eine Heimat) is a 1953 Swiss drama film directed by Leopold Lindtberg.

A policeman is not convinced that the prime suspect in a murder case is realty guilty and so decides to reinvestigate the case, despite the lack of co-operation from locals.

Soviet, British, French and American allies patrol post-war Vienna.

Uli has been the tenant of the "Glunggen-farm" for two years. His wife Vreneli gave him two children and the couple is happy. But this year, the harvest looks bad and his landlord calls in the rent, as the old man urgently needs money to satisfy the demands of his son and stepson. Desperate to make ends meet, Uli fraudulently sells a cow knowing that she does not produce any milk. He is pursued in court but is acquitted. But then, the buyer curses him... and disaster promptly strikes.

The trials of the wealthy Emmentaler farming family Jowäger, adapted from the 19th century novel of the same name by Jeremias Gotthelf (pen-name of Albert Bitzius), which was also published in two parts.

Heidi lives with Alp-Öhi n the Swiss Alps in the summer, where she helps Peter tend the goats. In winter, she stays in the village and attends school. One day, a letter arrives from Heidi's German friend, Klara Sesemann, announcing her visit. Klara indeed appears the next summer along with her grandmother and the prim governess Miss Rottenmeyer. Klara is quickly convinced to stay with Heidi, but Peter becomes resentful that Heidi now spends so little time with him...

The film traces Uli's progress from his humble peasant surroundings to the homes of the wealthy and prominent. The characterizations are convincing, and the comic interludes surprisingly subtle and believable for a Swiss film. The no-star cast doomed Uli Der Knecht from the start so far as American distribution was concerned. It was another matter in Switzerland, where the film was one of the year's top moneymakers. Uli der Knecht was based on a novel by Jeremias Gottbelf.