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Promo Trailer for Swiss Film 'Unrest' About Anarchist Watchmakers

by Alex Billington
February 21, 2022
Source: Vimeo

"Nation is a phantom. An anarchist society exists always." Alpha Violet has debuted an early promo trailer for the Swiss indie film Unrest, which just premiered at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival earlier this month. It played in the "Encounters" section and is a much more experimental, very dry, slow moving drama. It's set in Switzerland around 1877, "when the disparity between the authorities, manufacturers and models gives rise to parallel temporal dimensions." New technologies are transforming a 19th-century watchmaking town in Switzerland. Josephine, a young factory worker, produces the unrest wheel, swinging in the heart of the mechanical watch. Exposed to new ways of organizing money, time and labour, she gets involved with the local movement of the anarchist watchmakers, where she meets a Russian traveller. The director "continues to refine his style, which combines meticulous composition – both in his characteristic wide shots as well as in the extreme close-ups celebrating manual labour – with a distinct political stance." The film stars Clara Gostynski, Alexei Evstratov, Monika Stalder, Hélio Thiémard, and Li Tavor. This is worth a look.

Here's the festival promo trailer (+ first poster) for Cyril Schäublin's Unrest, direct from Vimeo:

Synopsis from Berlinale: "Another time is possible! At least that is the case in the early days of industrial watchmaking in Switzerland in around 1877, when the disparity between the authorities, manufacturers and models gives rise to parallel temporal dimensions, each with their own timetable, values and ideology. In this proto-Taylorist society, where dignitaries and their gendarmes control the exact time and dictate the rhythms of production and community, a group of workers form an anarchist union in association with the First International federation of workers' groups. This is where Josephine, who is in charge of assembling the unrest wheel, the heart of the mechanical watch, meets the Russian cartographer Pyotr Kropotkin, who is currently in the Jura valleys. Inspired by anarchist ideas, they demand the liberation of time and counter the values of the marketplace and nationalism with solidarity and pacifism." Unrest, also titled Unrueh, is both written and directed by the young Swiss filmmaker Cyril Schäublin, his second feature after making Those Who Are Fine previously. This recently premiered at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival early this year. No other release dates are set in any country - stay tuned for more updates. First impression? Look interesting?

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