Category: VoD

Who is still alive

Who is still alive

By First Hand Films
Swiss entry for the 2027 Oscars

Deeply moving and quietly powerful – a haunting film about loss amid humanitarian catastrophe – and about preserving identity in dark times.

A chalkboard, sketchily drawn, the outline of Gaza and nothing but words: Nine Palestinian refugees talk about life in the Gaza Strip before the war and before fleeing from hell. They talk about their deep connection to their homeland Gaza, their families and friends.
Their former lives lie in ruins. By sharing their experiences in conversation, the refugees find themselves and their way back to life. They are no longer ghosts.

QUI VIT ENCORE is a film like no other: intimate, human and universal. It tells the story of Gaza through those who built its future: entrepreneurs, a musician, a doctor and an influencer. Through their eyes, we discover a reality that is rarely shown on screen, far removed from the images in the news, characterised by resilience, creativity and hope.

This deeply humanistic film, which celebrated its international premiere in the renowned Giornate degli Autori section in Venice, has evoked a great emotional response and won the Cinema & Arts 2025 award. The film was also honoured at the Mostra Internacional del Cinema de São Paulo for its narrative power and social relevance.

Promotional Partners

Amnesty International Switzerland | Médecins du Monde | Rencontres Cinématographiques Palestine | Décroissance Alternatives | Collective Fribourg Palestine | Global Movement to Gaza

Lesbian Space Princess

Lesbian Space Princess

By First Hand Films

Introverted princess Saira, daughter of the lesbian queens of the planet Clitopolis, is devastated: her girlfriend, bounty hunter Kiki, has broken up with her! Kiki says Saira is just too boring. But she made her such a beautiful relationship album! However, when Kiki is kidnapped by the Straight White Maliens, the incels of the future, Saira has to leave the safe space of queer space and deliver the ransom within 24 hours: the royal labrys – a golden double axe of incredible lesbian power. The only problem… Saira doesn’t have it!

Hilariously funny, brightly coloured and euphoric, uncompromisingly queer: the first feature film by Australian directing duo Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs is a rousing intergalactic journey of self-discovery with a taste for mayhem and a big heart, somewhere between a wild sci-fi musical comedy and a healing coming-of-age adventure. It won the Teddy Award at the 2025 Berlinale and came second in the Panorama Audience Award. We think it’s great fun.

The Beauty of the Donkey

The Beauty of the Donkey

By First Hand Films

Filmmaker Dea Gjinovci and her father, who has been living in exile in Geneva for sixty years, return to his home village of Makermal in Kosovo. The village was destroyed during the war, and the only thing that remains are the stories of the villagers who are still alive. It is a community of resilience, and so is their story.

In this deeply moving docu-fiction, the filmmaker joins these people and her father on a search for traces of the past. Together, they bring back memories of her father’s childhood in Kosovo in the 1950s. They reveal shocking things, remember everyday occurrences, and many questions remain unanswered, such as the mysterious disappearance of her grandmother.

With her heart-warming film, Dea Gjinovci shows how important it is to come to terms with history.

Promtional partnerships

LAPSH-LEPA Genève | Albanian student organisation Geneva | AEAUL – Albanian students from Lausanne | ANEA – Albanian students from Neuchâtel | Kino Kosova

 

Dreamers

Dreamers

By First Hand Films

Dreams behind closed doors, freedom through imagination and hope: a visual and poetic odyssey about the search for freedom, love and friendship in an asylum centre – and about the necessity of breaking rules.

Isio fled Nigeria. She lives without papers in England until she is picked up and taken to an asylum centre. There, she follows every rule in the hope of a fair trial. But her roommate Farah sees things differently: those who follow the rules gain nothing here.

As Isio tries to survive in this limbo, new friendships develop – and new feelings. But the longer she waits, the clearer it becomes how fragile the promise of safety is. If you want to survive, you have to find your own way.

Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s tender but unflinching feature debut is inspired by her own experience in the British asylum system. The film had its world premiere at the 2025 Berlinale and opened the 2025 Pink Apple Queer Film Festival.

Dans La Cuisine Des Nguyen

Dans La Cuisine Des Nguyen

By First Hand Films

Yvonne Nguyen, a French-Vietnamese actress, dreams of a successful career in musicals, to the great displeasure of her mother, who would like her to pursue a more serious path. When she has no choice but to move back to her mother’s, both women are strangers to each other. But in the intimacy of the Vietnamese family restaurant’s kitchen, they grow closer. Meanwhile, Yvonne is still after her dreams and finally gets the chance to audition for a big show.

Naima

Naima

By First Hand Films

NAIMA – a heroine abroad

After many years working in the low-paid sector, the charming Naima, originally from Venezuela, has finally landed a job as an apprentice nurse. … But her happiness comes up against harsh reality: the patients love her empathetic humour, but her colleagues criticise her professional distance. When Naima fails her placement, her world collapses. But then she embarks on her toughest battle yet: standing up for herself.

We look behind a façade of prejudice and show a fighter who is looking for the right path to integration for herself and for many others. Naima should give courage not only to migrants, but also to all those fighting for their place in society.

Naima is a heroine of such strength and vitality that you fall in love with her charm from the very first moment. Dok Leipzig, Vika Leshchenko

In the media, migrants often appear as a threatening group, but we rarely learn who they really are. NAIMA shows the struggles and untapped potential that many still carry with them, even after years in their new country. NAIMA reflects the individual fates of many migrants who, unlike ‘expatriates’, go abroad with completely different circumstances. Unrecognised qualifications and difficult access to training often prevent them from developing their potential and finding their place in society. This often results in health problems, particularly psychological ones, which constitute a vicious circle for their professional and family lives.

Promotional partners

Milchjugend.ch | Milchjugend.ch | Multimondo | Association Découvrir | Espace Femmes | Universtität Zürich Latin American Center Zurich | Alter Start | Effe | Frida | Ville de Bienne

 

Blue Sun Palace

Blue Sun Palace

By First Hand Films

A powerful film about home, hope, and destiny.

In a massage parlor in Queens, thousands of kilometers from home, two friends, Amy and Didi, support each other through their daily work—shaped by the pursuit of personal happiness and the weight of family obligations. Together with their colleagues, they share a tender and supportive sisterhood. But the physical and emotional toll of their demanding jobs is ever-present. After Didi’s tragic death, Amy must take her fate into her own hands.

Promotional Partners
Swiss-Chinese Chamber of Commerce | Romandie Chine | Chinese Community Switzerland

My Sunshine

My Sunshine

By First Hand Films

On a small Japanese island, life revolves around the changing seasons. Winter is time for ice hockey at school, but Takuya isn’t too thrilled about it. His real interest lies in Sakura, a figure skating rising star from Tokyo, for whom he starts to develop a genuine fascination. Coach and former champion Arakawa, spots potential in Takuya, and decides to mentor him to form a duo with Sakura for an upcoming competition. As winter persists, feelings grow, and the two children form an harmonious bond. But even the first snow eventually melts away.

A touching and simple story
Variety

Okuyama constructs a quiet narrative carried by charm.
The Hollywood Reporter

 

 

 

Riverboom

Riverboom

By First Hand Films

The road movie Riverboom shows the crazy odyssey of three young war reporters in the chaos of Afghanistan shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Serge, a workaholic journalist, Paolo, a photographer who is as cheerful as he is clueless, and Claude, a morbidly cautious Swiss typographer.

Claude, who plunges into this adventure against his will, buys a video camera in the Kabul bazaar to film this crazy journey that will change his life … before he loses the tapes and finds them again twenty years later. Cheering!

Promotional Partners
Reporter without borders | Le Temps | Payot | RTS

 

Here all performances always up to date

Omegäng

Omegäng

By First Hand Films

Tauche ein „zmitzt“ in die faszinierende Welt unseres Dialekts und entdecke, warum er trotz der Globalisierung weiterhin blüht. Vor 160 Jahren, während des “Eisenbahnzeitalters”, fürchtete die Deutschschweiz den Verlust ihres Dialekts zugunsten des Hochdeutschen. Doch heute erleben wir das Gegenteil – der Dialekt bleibt lebendig und vielfältig.

Begegne herausragenden Mundartkünstlerinnen und Künstlern wie Franz Hohler und Big Zis. Sie und andere Personen aus Wissenschaft, Politik, Musik und Dörfern setzen sich im Film OMEGÄNG auf einzigartige und akribische Weise mit unserem Dialekt auseinander. Von Bühnen über Kellerräume bis zu den majestätischen Alpen – diese Menschen alle tragen dazu bei, dass unsere Sprache weiterhin gedeiht.

Erfahre erstaunliches über die Bedeutung von “omegäng” – einem vergessenen berndeutschen Dialektwort – und komm mit auf eine fesselnden Reise durch die moderne und alpine Deutschschweiz. Triff Menschen, die sich kreativ mit dem Schweizer Dialekt befassen, sei es stöbernd in alten Archiven, wo tausende Flüche schlummern, oder auf den Bühnen unseres Landes, wo Mundart als feministische Poesie messerscharfe Kritik übt, oder in die Dörfer wo “omegäng” noch immer gebraucht wird.

Wir werfen einen faszinierenden Blick auf sprachliche Veränderungen, die einerseits nostalgisch stimmen, andererseits aber auch gesellschaftliche Sprengkraft haben. Sei Teil dieser mitreissenden Reise durch unsere vielfältige Sprachlandschaft!

Franz Hohler – Franz Hohler ist ein Schweizer Schriftsteller, Kabarettist und Liedermacher.

Big Zis – Big Zis ist eine Schweizer Rapperin aus Winterthur im Kanton Zürich.

Pedro Lenz – Pedro Lenz ist ein Schweizer Schriftsteller, der meist in Mundart schreibt und vorträgt.

Alwa Alibi – Alwa Alibi ist eine Berner Rapperin, welche mit Mundart-Rap ihre Gedanken und Erfahrungen teilt.

Cachita – Die Rapperin und Muskerin verbindet in ihren Texten Englisch, Spanisch und Schweizerdeutsch. 

Simone Felber – Mezzosopranistin, Leitung des Jodler:innenchors Echo vom Eierstock

Nadia Zollinger – Betreibt den Podcast «Dini Mundart»: Als Kämpferin für den Dialekt

Markus Gasser – Betreibt den Podcast «Dini Mundart»: Als Kämpfer für den Dialekt

Christoph Landolt – Chefredaktor Schweizerisches Idiotikon

Promotions Partner:innen
Schweizerdeutsch.Info | Orell Füssli

 

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