Container Film AG

“Every day I think about my family, my children, the future.” Two years ago, Magheswaran Naganathy fled Sri Lanka. He lives with Ratha Sivaramalingam, Puniya Sundarampillai, and around fifty other Tamils in a Salvation Army refugee camp in Zollikofen near Bern. Time is killed in the camp. Shopping at Shoppyland, if the social security money is enough. Regular work is not allowed. Practicing the dreaded police interrogation in role-playing games. Getting summer clothes from the Red Cross. Waiting for the mailman to bring newspapers and letters from home. “My children always ask me what my life is like in Switzerland and when I'm coming home.” (Translated from German)

Encounters on the Milky Way shows three cattle breeders from Mali and Burkina Faso during their trip to Switzerland where they meet with two dairy farmers from the Swiss Lake District and a cheese manufacturer in the Berne's Oberland. Back in their homeland, they tell their friends and neighbors about their experiences.

Returning home to his native Emmental after travelling around the world, Jürg Neuenschwander comes across peoble who are skilled in the art of healing and tend to the sick with herbs and powers even though the law of the canton of Berne still strictly prohibits the practice of healing. Healers have become very popular. Their patients come from all walks of life: nurses, distillers, alpine farmers and computer experts alike approach healers in the hope that they will relieve or even deliver them from their sufferings. Many patients with chronical illnesses view healers as the last resort after traditional doctors have failed to help them.

Thought-provoking and moving, “sooner or later” explores life's only inevitability, death. Jürg Neuenschwander's camera takes us into the hospital rooms, morgues and homes where life comes to pass. A young couple saying their last goodbyes to their newborn son or the teenager coming to terms with a fatal disease: the film accompanies those affected by death, and compares our western attitude to death with that in Tibetan culture. Final goodbyes from life are universally painful and difficult, and Neuenschwander's sensitive film subtly reminds us of our own mortality.

Entertaining stories about unique enthusiasts and successful entrepreneurs whose curiosity, ambition and sense for innovation give a fascinating insight into Chinese reality today.