Richard Dindo
Switzerland | 1987 | 138 min
Languages : French, German, Swiss German
Subtitle : French
The Zurich youth movement in 1980 and 1981 – and more particularly its autonomous centre which would be closed and destroyed – provides the setting for this film which, for Richard Dindo, is a new meticulous and committed investigation of the death of four of its young male participants. Dani, Michi, Renato and Max were victims of “accidents” involving the police; using a repetitive structure that can sometimes bring fiction to mind, the director visits the crime scenes and methodically reconstructs the facts with witnesses, by dint of images and words, which alone can summon the past. The rebellion of a generation seeking freedom is also at the heart of the film, a youth in revolt, refusing to do what is expected of it in a conservative and stifling society. “An implacable observer of Swiss reality” – as Guy Gauthier describes him – the filmmaker here mixes poetics and politics around the figure of absence, once more giving a voice to those who have already been silenced.
Emilie Bujès
