Feature film
The Swissmakers
Die Schweizermacher
Rolf Lyssy · 1978
Synopsis
Max Bodmer, a seasoned and suspicious policeman, and Moritz Fischer, his new colleague, more open-minded, are tasked with investigating in plain clothes the foreigners who apply for Swiss nationality. They thus follow a German psychiatrist and his wife, a Yugoslav dancer, an Italian pastry cook and a few others, to establish whether they deserve to become Swiss. The files follow one another, and each visit says more about the investigators than about the people they observe.
Context
Lyssy wrote the screenplay with Christa Maerker, and T&C Film of Zurich produced it. Fritz E. Maeder was the cinematographer, Georg Janett the editor and Jonas C. Haefeli the composer. Walo Lüönd plays Bodmer and Emil Steinberger Fischer, with Beatrice Kessler, Wolfgang Stendar, Hilde Ziegler, Claudio Caramaschi and Silvia Jost among the candidates. The film was released in 1978 and made the country laugh at its own naturalisation procedure.
Who it is for
One hundred and four minutes, in Swiss German. The Swiss administrative customs are explained by the film itself.
Prizes and reception
The most-watched Swiss film since statistical records began, in 1976: 941,552 admissions in Switzerland, according to the Federal Statistical Office.
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