Happiness, Diggers, the Dalai Lama, and ‘Immortals’: 11 Swiss Films Not to Miss at Locarno

Ready for a bit of Swiss bliss on the big screen? The 78th edition of Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival has you covered, once again showcasing a range of Swiss movies worth audiences’ attention.

Taking place Aug. 6-16, various sections at the fest will offer up homemade fare, in addition to its broad lineup of world and other premieres from around the world. And of course, the popular “Panorama Suisse” section will put the spotlight on “Swiss films that have enjoyed success at festivals, found an audience in cinemas, or are currently released in the country,” Locarno organizers highlight. “Film lovers from all over the world can thus find a taste of contemporary Swiss cinema.”

Will Locarno serve up more Swiss delicacies than you can likely catch, even if Bern-ing the midnight oil? Alps-solutely!

But if you want to avoid having Swiss cheese-like holes in your Locarno schedule, check out THR‘s look at 11 select Swiss treats screening at Locarno78 below.

Mosquitoes (Le Bambine)
Directors: Valentina Bertani, Nicole Bertani
Countries of production: Italy, Switzerland, France
Festival section: International Competition

Looking for a coming-of-age story that sounds… well, really different? Look no further than Mosquitoes, or “The Little Girls” per its Italian title, inspired by the filmmakers’ childhood.

The movie’s cast includes Mia Ferricelli, Agnese Scazza, Petra Scheggia, Clara Tramontano, Milutin Dapčević, Jessica Piccolo Valerani, Cristina Donadio, and Matteo Martari.

Audiences can expect a lot to happen. “1997. Eight-year-old Linda drifts from her wealthy grandmother’s Swiss villa with her carefree mother, Eva. In Italy, they meet sisters Azzurra and Marta. A chance summer encounter binds the three girls in a gang to protect each other, their youth, and freedom,” reads a synopsis. “Around them swirl selfish parents chasing fragile dreams, gossiping neighbors, and a queer babysitter trying to find his place in a world that doesn’t want him either.”

Le Lac
Director: Fabrice Aragno
Country of production: Switzerland
Festival section: International Competition

If you are doubting your French skills, yes, Le Lac does mean The Lake, which the film still above also confirms.

This film, starring Clotilde Courau and Bernard Stamm, comes from Aragno, who has so far mostly been known for making short films and TV movies.

Now get ready for a very Swiss tease for the movie! “A woman and a man throw themselves into a sailing race lasting several days and nights on a large lake. One would like to cross over, yet one cannot, one misses any sign of life, yet life is perceivable in the rushing tide, in the blowing of the wind, in the drifting clouds, in the solitary cry of birds.” We’re intrigued!

Don’t Let the Sun
Director: Jacqueline Zünd
Countries of production: Switzerland, Italy
Festival section: Cinema of the Present

“The heat keeps rising. People grow distant, in curious kinds of solitude. This is where Jonah (28) provides comfort for strangers. But when he finds himself in the role of the father for 9-year-old Nika, his life starts to unravel.”

So reads a plot summary for documentary maker Zünd’s fiction feature debut, inspired by rent-a-friend agencies in Japan and set in a time of rising temperatures. The result is, so the Locarno website, “a delicate drama about the fragility of human relations.”

Written by Zünd and Arne Kohlweyer, the film stars Levan Gelbakhiani, Maria Pia Pepe, Agnese Claisse, and Karidja Touré. Don’t Let the Sun – and don’t miss it!

Le Chantier
Director: Jean-Stéphane Bron
Countries of production: France, Switzerland
Festival section: Out of Competition

Documentary maker Bron is pulling double duty in Locarno’s 2025 out-of-competition lineup, given that his series The Deal, about the 2015 nuclear negotiations between the U.S. and Iran in Switzerland, also screens in that fest section.

Le Chantier, meaning “The Construction Site” in French, takes us inside the reconstruction of a legendary cinema under the direction of architect Renzo Piano. 

But a synopsis promises this specific project to also tell a larger story: “Set within the confines of this exceptional construction site, the film paints a portrait of a miniature society, driven by a common goal: to build cinemas for the next century. From the architect to the journeymen carpenters, from the site manager to the head of the Pathé group, from the designer of the speakers to the future projectionists, the film paints a vivid portrait of this society at a human level.”

Mary Anning
Director: Marcel Barelli
Countries of production: Switzerland, Belgium
Festival section: Locarno Kids Screenings

English fossil collector and paleontologist Mary Anning is the focus of this animated movie from Marcel Barelli, the Swiss-born director and designer who will receive this year’s Locarno Kids Award.

“Barelli has established himself as one of the most promising and original voices in Swiss and international animation cinema,” Locarno organizers said.

The film is set in 1811, when is “an inquisitive and tenacious 12-year-old girl” who “spends her days searching for fossils,” notes a summary. “Her father passed on this passion to her, but her life suddenly changes when he disappears, leaving behind a mysterious drawing and a struggling family. Determined to help her mother and brother, Mary tries to uncover the secret of the drawing. She will discover so much more than just fossils: friendships, adventures, and the very start of paleontology.”

Bagger Drama
Director: Piet Baumgartner
Country of production: Switzerland
Festival section: Panorama Suisse

“Bagger” is German for “digger.” And drama means, well, drama. Baffled? Well, you may have to watch this one to see what it is about.

Bettina Stucky, Phil Hayes, Vincent Furrer, Karin Pfammatter, and Maximilian Reichert are part of the ensemble cast of the movie from Baumgartner (The Driven Ones, series Clash).

Of course, it tells a story about diggers but also unearths much more. “A family finds it difficult to talk about feelings, love or intimacy,” a plot description says. “The family business demands their full attention: renting, selling and repairing excavators. Everyone has to pitch in. When the daughter has a fatal accident, the family stops functioning. The son would rather go to the USA than take over the company. The father takes a liking to the new choir director, and the mother suddenly finds herself alone.”

Frieda’s Case
Director: Maria Brendle
Countries of production: Switzerland
Festival section: Panorama Suisse

A historic Swiss legal case and its present-day is the topic of German-Swiss director Maria Brendle’s debut feature Frieda’s Case (Friedas Fall). The murder trial of young seamstress Frieda Keller may have taken place in St. Gallen, Switzerland in 1904. But it is also a timely global story about female emancipation and empowerment.

“We still have to deal with the same or similar issues around the world,” Brendle told THR earlier this year about the themes of the film, which has been traveling the festival circuit, including a run at the Beijing International Film Festival.

The ensemble cast, led by Julia Buchmann as Keller, includes Stefan Merki, Rachel Braunschweig, Max Simonischek, and Marlene Tanczik. If you like a historical drama with present-day implications, don’t let Frieda’s Case close without catching it!

Immortals
Director: Maja Tschumi
Countries of production: Switzerland, Iraq
Festival section: Panorama Suisse

This one may not sound like a Swiss film, but it is. Actually, it is a documentary co-production between Switzerland and Iraq.

Check out the synopsis: “Milo, a strong-willed feminist, discovers the long-sought power to wander around freely in Baghdad by dressing in her brother’s clothes. Khalili, a young and ambitious filmmaker, realizes that his camera can be the strongest of all weapons. In the aftermath of the 2019 revolution, Milo and Khalili are the faces, the eyes, and the voices of an Iraqi youth that relentlessly fights for a better future.”

As such, the doc gives insight into the hopes and, often broken, dreams of a new generation that has grown up with war since the U.S.-led Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Wisdom of Happiness
Directors: Barbara Miller, Philip Delaquis
Country of production: Switzerland
Festival section: Panorama Suisse

Remember how the previous titles didn’t seem Swiss at first? Well, here comes another one, namely a documentary that promises nothing short of a “heart-to-heart with the Dalai Lama.”

For Miller, the topic may feel more zen than the heavier ones she has tackled in such previous works as her 2012 Forbidden Voices, about fearless women speaking out in China, Cuba, and Iran as past of sa networked generation of modern resistance fighters, and her 2018 film #Female Pleasure, described as “a journey to discover the remaining obstacles that stand in the way of female sexuality in the 21st century.”

A synopsis of Wisdom of Happiness actually reads like the kind of treatment that many in the world could use these days. It promises “a deeply intimate and highly cinematic documentary featuring the Dalai Lama, who, at nearly 90 years of age, offers practical advice for navigating the 21st century’s challenges.” And it concludes: “The film captures the Dalai Lama speaking directly to viewers, creating a sense of a private audience, and shares his timeless wisdom on achieving inner peace and happiness for everyone.” Feeling better already!?

Pictures in Mind (Bilder im Kopf)
Director: Eleonora Camizzi
Country of production: Switzerland
Festival section: Panorama Suisse

Picture this! In Eleonora Camizzi’s directorial debut, an experimental documentary, daughter and father meet in a white room. So far, so… WHAT!?

Let’s try this another way: “An innocent conversation about a deal with the Queen reveals: the apparent emptiness is taken up by a stigmatized diagnosis and decades of silence,” reads a description for this film. “What begins as a questioning about the past develops into a sincere dialogue in the present.”

If you are not convinced to watch this one yet, the summary ends with this kicker: “The film questions the boundaries between sick and healthy, right and wrong, strange and familiar and attempts to turn a utopia into a reality.”

Late Shift (Heldin)
Director: Petra Volpe
Countries of production: Switzerland, Germany
Festival section: Panorama Suisse

“Heroine” is the German-language title of the latest movie from Volpe (The Divine Order), starring Leonie Benesch (The Teacher’s Lounge, Babylon Berlin). Fans may well use that word to describe the two creative forces of nature who just can’t seem to stop bringing to life characters that grab you.

In this case, Benesch, who recently won the German Film Award, or Lola, for her supporting actress turn as a translator in September 5, portrays a nurse handling the stressful daily routine on the surgical ward of a hospital with passion and professionalism. “But when there is a shortage of staff on a late shift, her work becomes a race against time,” the synopsis warns.

When the film debuted at Berlin earlier this year, THR‘s review lauded it as “a taut and sensitive tribute to working-class heroes,” highlighting that the “gripping drama revolves around an extraordinary Leonie Benesch as an overworked and tireless nurse.”