A memory of something that never existed
Elias Bötticher | 2025 | Documentary, Experimental | 29 min
Longing for a city of lights, Fadri wanders through distant memory spaces.
Longing for a city of lights, Fadri wanders through distant memory spaces.
Stefan is diagnosed with dementia and must learn to live with this challenge.
A waitress can no longer ignore her grief when a cake appears made by her dead mother.
Women are raising their voices against the oil extraction in the Amazon region.
After her grandpa’s burial, Terri faces grief, love, and her narcissistic mother.
A filmmaker is researching the subject of paid sex in Switzerland.
Annette travels to Korea with her adopted son and meets his birth mother.
The Indian migrant worker Mary is torn between budding emotions and her distant homeland.
A Tale of Decay.
A research team embarks on a quest to uncover the secret that makes plants bloom.
At a rum punch-fueled dinner party, chaos and secrets spark unlikely bonds.
An art student, a real estate agent, and two lovers - and their carefully crafted facades.
Surrounded by voices, person C tries to bring order to their chaos.
A not quite traditional fairy tale about care work.
Everything’s wrong — then a grandpa shows up.
South African students from all walks of life deal with an unforgotten past.
Between volcanoes and fairs: Matilda wrestles with origin, distance, and change.
A group of high school students has to break into the principal's office.
During her cure stay Charlotte F. detects a shift in her husband's character.
Unemployed and adrift, Selma strives to reclaim control over her life.
The airport, the melting-pot of different symptoms of our times.
Whim and the Ensemble have to dance for their lives in the piece SYNCOPE.
Maya carries memories of someone else in her head and has to face her own past.
Between thousands of tonnes of container steel, Rudmer is on his way to becoming a captain
Three friends, their “safe space”, the impending end of the world and colorful milkshakes.
Anyone who wants to eat meat must pass a test.
A harmless argument between two children ends in death threats between the two fathers.
A woman and a married man meet in a motel room for their secret affair.
As Hanka and her grandfather Bobek open preserved jars, they delve into the past.
A train journey disrupts the family’s idyll.
A researcher finds her own past in glacial ice.
A chemical plant transforms a beach into a white paradise - a whale becomes stranded.
A young soccer player is overwhelmed by the closeness of his friendship with a teammate.
5 episodes about imperfection in relationships.
Is love more than just a projection?
A visual study of the ambivalence of human needs.
To feel the wall you are running against, it is necessary to move.
Stop feeding the salamanders!
A film about groups, their moods and dynamics that can emerge throughout a day.
A flat search through death notices
So that the silken thread does not tear, the firstborn takes over the parental tasks.
Play becomes serious: a journey into the depths of repressed memories.
Due to the current political state, a Polish grandma is asked to emigrate to her family.
A listless young man suffers from the expectations of those around him.
A journey to a crystallized past through the residents and workers of an elderly home.
An easily distracted young woman loses her grip on time.
A stormy concert. A winemaker. And her blind father who won't listen.
The opera singer Enrico is confronted with his mothers death on the premiere night.
A story of belonging, melancholia and ripped roses.
Mrs. Bünzli does not want to take in a refugee.
In a medieval village, Valesquita discovers the sinister machinations of her mother.
Silvia is going through a day of defeat.
In the care of the forest Yuna finds acceptance for the cycle of life.
Onur leads the filmmaker to the gay prides in lstanbul and Zurich.
Unable to afford a fancy holiday, a family hides at home to save their reputation.
It seems all difficult for the family. But the hope is still there.
On her magical search for freedom, Mia also finds herself.
Destruction is a part of us, we are part of it.
Four groups sweat without noticing that the water is up to their necks.
Everything ticks in Triberg, the birthplace of the cuckoo clock. Only time stands still.
The twins Lucie and Pierre believe they have switched bodies.
Seven places where people are on a cigarette break.
Summer is over, it's hard to let it go.
A young Maroccan in search for love and a brighter future. What price will he pay for it?
A portrait of a family is revealed through their dreams.
Crush. Crush. Crash.
A portrait of a country, being incapacitated by the war – it had lost its limbs.
Unable to overcome the death of her dog, Isabell decides that no one should have a dog.
Josef wants to fly and Claudius wants to make his degree film.
Mother, daughter and cat are looking for love.
How does one stand growing old?
Larissa, a young woman seeks recognition using socialplatforms as guidelines.
Four strangers are waiting for a train in an remote train station.
Arada – displaced to a foreign homeland.
A father-son story about faith and heavy metal.
A peasant couple loses everything, but they discover love.
A mother is confronted with her son’s suicide.
Only one will leave the inn alive.
Hate your job? Don’t jump! Watch THE NITWITS instead.
A digital shopping experience.
Dave is the last human in an office full of hip robots.
Manuela erlebt auf dem Geburtstag ihrer Freundin Vanessa eine unvergessliche Nacht.
A Romeo & Juliet story set in the Kosovo War 1998.
Gaia lives alone in the forest. To save the planet, she needs to go to town.
The end of an era is near – for a generation as for the Café Zentrum
In the future everyone has a brain implant from TEL that gives people telepathic abilities
Princess Therese of Bavaria, travels incognito to Brazil in 1888.
Christina lets Joel take nude photographs of her. Can she trust him with them?
In search of a stranger, a young woman goes into her deepest dream world.
During a night’s drive, Luca is caught up in his past and loses his sense of reality.
Dialogue with a penal colony.
Sweat, blood and tears go into making every dish.
Four young Ethiopian Jews struggle with racism against their community in Israel.
Are we shaped by our memories or are we shaping our memories?
Reto, who decidedly has enough troubles of his own, drives a teenage runaway home to Italy
A Swiss-Korean girl meets a mysterious North Korean man, who appears in her wardrobe.
13-year-old Emil fearfully awaits his mother’s arrival.
Dave is the last human in an office full of hip robots.
Two politicians shake hands. The situation gets out of hand.
Fabrice is getting abused by his girlfriend, what is he going to do?
Dimi visits his hometown in Italy, which he regrets right at the start of the journey.
With friends, sex at an afterhour, an unspoken No. All good?
Irna seeks comfort in her own world, where rubber doll Elias makes up her reality.
A journey into the depths of the subconscious.
Leon finally wants to leave everything behind him and start a new life.
A little girl is immersed in the grieving process of her father‘s death.
Sarah is pregnant and has to tell her divorced parents the big news.
What is the consequence of an immolation by fire? Can radical action really change things?
Luka is clattering through the night with his Piaggio Ciao until he met a little boy..
The view of a child of a family breaking apart
Roli comes to Fareed’s assistance when he is faced with the burial of his Muslim wife.
An intimate play about dark and hidden desires.
David is not ready for fatherhood. He starts using steroids.
Leandra has to bring her husband Paul into a retirement home. But he would rather go to th
Children with an immigration background find a common language in classical music.
Two friends are partying with an unexpected visitor.
15-year-old Mia is facing an overwhelming transformation.
A man tries to safe the employees of a Swiss bank by the use of interventions.
Together with his mother Finn moves into an old house.
Anna has doubts but she must decide and go down a painful path.
Pippa looses herself in dreams of becoming a famous actress.
Maximilian loves daydreaming, but his mother won’t let him.
Maren is a tourguide. Her motto: keep smiling & retain composure, until Max is in her bus.
Lea is in the middle of her preparation for an important figure skating competition.
A portrait of an manic-depressive teenager
A group of seniors is trying to find their place in the digital age.
When I came of age, my father gave me a film about my life.
A women, in a car, in the woods, at night. She hits something with her car.
Tim falls in love with a corpse, which he should deliver to a necrophiliac brothel.
Shortly before a fight, boxer Tom hast lost his courage to win.
Swimming. Night. Adolescents. A dangerous balancing act between game and reality.
Carnival
Anoosh and Arash are at the centre of Tehran’s underground techno scene.
An concept about machines and their transcendency.
A flat full of cameras and a cat with hurt feelings are going to be Monas’ worst nightmare
A girl with Turkish heritage who discovers that she has none and many home countries.
Rafael invites you to a "Celebrity Advent Dinner"
EUGENE (50) lives alone in his small apartment at the edge of a city.
The old fashioned young inventor called Leonardo dreams of flying.
Rafi and Alex decide to focus on a new science: Paleontology.
NATALIE (35) has a first date with SASCHA (40), a guy from a dating website,
While Elin is doing a geological expedition she gets disturbed by an unexpected incident.
When Lena is fed up with her drunk father she escapes from home.
An homage to the unspectacular.
Bad images should disappear suddenly! Since negative images mustn’t been thought.
A cinematographic experiment in four episodes.
Katharinas decision to leave the band is more sweeping than it seems.
FAMILY FRAGMENTS reconstructs the memories of a divorced family.
Alina is fifteen when her stepfather, a stately Nigerian, is arrested for dealing drugs
A documentary essay-like film about the deportation center in Zürich.
A glimpse of a city at night. Humans appear, stand still, stumble and disappear.
Besjan, a young Kosovo Albanian boy receives from his uncle a job.
In the deep south of Italy a group of men play a drinking game named: Padrone e Sotto.
"In summer everyone goes on vacation, to the beach I guess."
Armin travels to Indonesia with two friends to find his birth father.
A serial killer terrorizes Zurich.
Hanna almost came to terms as a permanent guest at the campsite.
One day, Riham finds his father dying in the desert.
The quest for happiness between hotdogs, free parking spaces, and self-assembly furniture.
Do fat girls fuck better?
A little work of art can have a big impact.
Anna (20) steals things. Pieces of luggage is what she likes best.
Nadir realizes that his son has had a change of heart he never thought was possible.
Mathias and Nina are prospective parents. But their relationship is on shaky ground.
In the midst of the steep slopes of the Maggia Valley they live.
The long-serving head of a prison hospital ward suddenly looses control.
Family reunion on christmas eve. Secrets are being disclosed, nerves are on edge.
In the vacuum of depth delusion is pulsating.
...in july, at the campsite by a river.
Lolita goes anarchy.
Forced to be alone: Whenever Lothar sneezes, nearby objects explode. To
"Sunday with the familiy" is an intimate portrait of a family observed from the kitchen.
To be able to finish the school, i have to deliver something now.
Alfonso is a stage hypnotist, gruff and shrewd.
The film is about a carpentry apprentice who is confronted with his craft and himself.
UNKNOWN TERRITORY accompanies young migrants during school in the integration class Basel.
An intimate Portrait of two brazilian immigrants.
What is love?
Girl meets boy on the moon.
Two siblings, a brother and a sister, meet in an empty house.
A Ukrainian bus, old in years and kilometers.
Silent hide-and-seek.
After his own death Ibrahim finds himself in an endless white plane.
Surrogacy in a clinic in the Northwest of India.
A musical journey with Pippo Pollina.
To rekindle their sex life, a young married couple decides to resort to role-play.
Boris surprises his 10 year old son Frederik with a fishing trip.
Anna travels around to find locations for a movie production.
At a party. Young artists and bon vivants.
When his mother discovers the hiding place, Manuel loses his last refuge.
Vincent wants to go home to persuade his wife to come back to him.
A figure, made of lumps of earth overgrown by something.
A story from the swiss backcountry.
Parvaneh, a young, Afghan migrant is living in a transit centre for asylum.
Cem runs away from his family who want to ship him back to Turkey.
Emma and Gloria are having coffee before work.
In a photo booth, a baby is crying.
Parachutes takes place in a future where the sea doesn’t exist anymore.
A nightmare awakes Luca out of his wedding night.
«Heidi goes Alfa» is a 10 year project about my car and myself.
Three muslim women, three generations, one family.
Right in the middle of.
Two patients meet each other in a hospital.
Paul Haller led a life of yearning for the absolute truth.
The War ends. An old soldier returns to the ruins of his hometown.
Three siblings are growing up in the war.
Leyla (15) is caught in an unhealthy relationship with "Big", an unpredictable man.
Eddy just wants to throw some baskets at his favorite basketball court.
3 adolescents, 7 days, an egg, an eye, an unlimited horizon, the loss of innocence.
A young man thinks about where he might be today, if certain things had been different.
Samuel meets Philippe, one highly admired collegue of his best friend Andreas.
Twenties. A young and solitary alchemist. His dedication: Botanical species and nymphs.
Sarah Sheeba was born in India and left behind in a home by her sick mother.
She´s on a train. He sits down opposite her.
Who said that at home you can feel save?
A tragicomic portrait of a family living beyond the usual conventions.
With all his energy Paul tries to take care of his wife at home.
In a Spanish hotel Sven is looking for love.
Three atients in a psychiatric institution with the same goal: they want out!
The ransom keeps waiting. The kidnappers are getting nervous.
Tiger`s Nose is an 80-year-old Tibetan. He was imprisoned for over 30 years.
An inward journey through a distant country
Everyday life is a gray prision, one that gradually wears down the variety of life.
A boy dreams of being a great soccerstar.
The story of a young woman and the longing for her deseased mother.
A young man is waiting for her to give him a sign, that may never come.
STANDBY is a little story about a young man’s uncertainties.
The shy sales girl Anna passes the crêperie each day on her way to work.
It’s a normal day in a coffee shop of a small American town. Suddenly the oxygen runs out.
Out of boredom a group of young girls gets carried away with frays on the playground.
Fabienne is in the forest to finish her Photography-Project for School.
Reto makes guided tours through Zurich.
Parents of two children, they try to avoid their problems in their own way.
May, a young Chinese girl secretly works at a flower shop.
A perch is caught, left lying, then stolen, only to be found again.
Connie (14) is new to the village.
A Game with the convergence of nature and urban space.
Daniel Schmid became a storyteller – and remained one all his life.
Immer wieder zieht es den Autor in sein griechisches Heimatdorf zurück.
An Indian family searching for the proper formula for “love” and “marriage”.
The Man and the Girlfriend live in a loose relationship.
The brothers Oli and Jan are confronted with the absence of their parents.
Since the death of his grandmother, Leo (15) has to do housekeeping for his grandfather.
Es gibt viele unterschiedliche Ansätze, Fiktion zu erklären.
A experimental portrait of a exil scout.
An evening at the Crazy Fish Sushi Bar.
A lesbian fairytale depicting the possibility of overcoming social borders.
Lisa starts her new part-time job at a canteen.
The last days of World War II.
Alice is waiting for her acceptance letter from the arts college.
Lisa and Michael travel around the world as Swiss seamen.
An abandoned tourist resort at the end of the world.
Three men living on a camping site between a highway, a river and two cliffs.
Bruno, an unsuccessful sales rep, doesn’t have the heart to cook a lobster.
Simone has to attend her father's funeral. But she misses her connecting flight.
Lejla works with her friend Anci in a noble hotel restaurant on the top of Sarajevo.
A father and his little daughter are at the supermarket, suddenly the cellphone rings.
Elena is almost thirty but her life still doesn’t seem to have started.
Life is expensive.
A story about love and death
Fredy is a photographer. He is afraid of getting blind through an upcoming eye surgery.
A Boxer is visited by his brother.
Three couples who are close friends get together for a leaving party.
In a sleepy mountain village in the Bunderland, Father Ernst Vial celebrates Mass.
Kurt locked himself in the closet and refuses to come out.
Julian, a simple farmer's son from the country side, loves his home in the mountains.
Ein Essay über geträumte Bilder und der Suche nach Wirklichkeit.
Ralph is secretly in love with his flatmate.
Shenthuya, Jana, Joana, Haris and Renad attend school receiving special tuition.
A village in Switzerland. Every friday, Muslims come to pray in the old schoolhouse.
Alphons is on the way to his suicide
Antoine glaubt fest an eine Sache: Seine Mutter komme sie ihn besuchen – als Engel.
A musician, a physicist and a man with a disability pension.
A couple have been living together in a long relationship.
The film accompanies four mentally handicapped musicians in their everyday lives.
Fourteen-year-old Leander thinks his willy is too small.
Dolores has had enough.
The film is a remarkable journey through the rooms of a hotel.
Endo and Andre are two bothers who haven't spoken to one another for years.
A hospital waiting room at two o’clock in the morning. Two strangers meet.
Just enough money for cigarettes and to have their own apartment, an unattainable dream.
Toggenburg. Since the day I left the valley, I have missed it.
Mannu and Flo are broke. But they have a plan: Canada.
Due to their mother's illness, a brother and sister have to make concessions
Iuna is spending her spring vacation in canton Jura with her friend Svetlana.
Die junge Japanerin Kimiko steht kurz davor, ihre Heimat zu verlassen.
Tom visits his parents with his girlfriend to break important news.
On the shore of a forsaken island Hannu digs in the snow, attempting to relocate a place.
Antoine and Meier were best friends as teenagers.
A car dealer who believes he is a cowboy and a man in a suit.
Two key monents in the lives of Curdin and Lea: their meeting and their later separation.
The child prodigy Floh has a wild story to tel.
Istanbul, Bosphorus. The old ferryman Captain Riza is the last one in his business.
Zwingerlin is stuck in a seaport.
Once upon a time, there were Jonathan and Paul, and both loved Sophia.
The vintner Jean is being replaced by the wine expert Luc.
The story of Sibylle, who has to deal with her grandmother's senility.
Viktor is a vampire who feels like a failure because he has not managed to bite anyone.
I want to know, how someone can learn to tame his/her inner beast.
Katharina fährt durch Polen.
12 year old Florian is in love with the much older Juanita.
It’s easy to believe in love – if you live 697 kilometers away from it.
One day two old ladies meet unexpectedly at a hairdresser’s.
Oscar and his father watch Oscar's son play a football match.
A little boy is standing with his mother in front of the toyshop „Belmondo“.
Diana is a respectable woman of 67 who lives an uneventful life.
A short story about lonelyness in the midst of a modern-day family.
This film should have been about the former nannies of the director.
Zurich East is a documentary roadmovie and a tribute to friendship.
Mary and Jacques are fleeing from the police with their booty on Christmas Eve.
Married for 30 years, Ernst and Edna lead the usual life of couples their age.
Both say that it was the love of their lives. But this love could not be.
Film, Opera and Music become one.
The author sends her alterego “Susi” on a search to find the prince of here dreams.
In a letter to a friend, I tell about my thoughts about the flow of life.
A couple prepares to receive their guests.
"Un momento" describes Bellino's brief encounter with love.
One day Lea ruthlessly runs after a new challenge.
Mari-Carmen and Conchita are playing and talking. They open a fictional dialogue.
Laila, 18 delivers pizzas, but she dreams of becoming a musical comedy star.
Paul works as an employee in a big office.
A couple takes a car ride in the Alps.
More than 800 people inhabit Lochergut, a tower block in the heart of Zurich.
One morning, Siegfried discovers something strange in his toilet cistern.
Konrad falls in love with a beautiful, unknown man in a photo.
A young man is put to the test as a newly trained customs official.
A film about the tangled paths of love.
Wesley visits Salome, he had a holiday romance with her in London.
Rita was the great role model of my childhood.
An accountant dies and finds himself on the train that is supposed to take him to paradise
Choreographer Barbara Cleff places an advertisement and wakens many dreams.
A round of inconspicuous events.
In 1970 Nico G. was adopted. 30 years later he wants to find his birth mother.
Maria represses her loneliness by sacrificingly caring for other people's problems.
Man and the power of nature in the mountains.
A fleeting lighting mood brings a painful memory of the surface.
Today is his best day, today is the supernova.
A postcard. A little holiday story, in a country without borders.
Never has the shy Thomas let his feelings run wild for his father.
Der Computerspezialist Adam wird in ein abgelegenes Kloster gerufen.
We have technology on our side. - Will mother nature be with us, too?
An agent is searching for a missing person at Dr. Gruber.
Love is just a projection.
At a dinner with her boss everything goes wrong for Karin.
Wilhelm Tell takes Walter into the mountains, where he abuses him behind a rock.
An island owner and his life between dream fulfillment and everyday life.
Zurich Central Station. She is from Berlin, he is from New York. Their eyes meet...
In the private prison CIP manipulates Dr. Block the time perception of a prisoner.
A young father and pilot takes off for the last flight.
Carla loves the vastness of the sky, close to the clouds.
An experimental game with the image of the woman.
Three thefts on an afternoon…
Ein Paar liebt sich in einem Hotel.
Vanessa gets lost in the timeless labyrinth of her decisions.
Boredom and unfulfilled longing determine the life of the young casino owner.
Pofonok tells the story of victory and defeat and life in Budapest.
ACEDIA I ist ein interaktives Video über Langeweile, Überdruss und Betriebsamkeit.
One morning we woke up and realized we were ordinary.
Zeynep, a turkish women, is about to be deported
Life moves in mysterious ways.
A love story in Vienna.
The everyday meanness in life lure Andrea into the sidelines.
Can birds fly in the cage?
Childhood experiences can leave their mark. Paul is being followed by them.
Without commentary, Steff lets boys and ancestors explain their world view.
A couple is fighting until the end becomes a new beginning.
A film about the proliferation of the unconscious - the longing of the princess.
16.7.1969. Der erste Mensch betritt den Mond. Malcolm ist der Zweite – oder Dritte.
Moris must be forced into isolation.
Two horror movies in a love movie.
A successful director is looking for a young actress.
Book antiquarian Karlsen can not get away from his store.
Once upon a time O. wakes up from a nightmare...
The restless collector Klemens is alone with his vision, he has to clear his storerooms.
Wild Bees are being displaced from their habitat by farmed honey bees.
Can homeless Nia escape her predicament?
Frida goes through a rollercoaster of emotions, told in a surprising and multilayered way.
A night on an empty campsite turns into a nightmare for three young camp leaders.
A political hero's journey without a happy ending
Shannet shares her journey of healing the wounds caused by transphobia.
Thorns turn into flowers through love.
A lonely artist is called by a disembodied voice.
The bond between two siblings suffers the burden of domestic violence.
Three people, a film crew, one goal. They want to make a sustainable change in society.
An inexplicable shift in the rules of the world brings to light people’s forgotten dreams.
An untold war story
I’m on my way. It leads me through my memories. All the way to home.
Petting mice, styling dogs, killing cows.