Film offering glimpse of ordinary Swiss lives now streaming in three languages

The largest collaborative film project in Swiss history, featuring 82 minutes of edited footage of an ordinary summer day in the lives of people all over the country, is available for streaming in German, French and Italian starting Thursday.

Originally planned for a cinematic release, the film “Switzerlanders” by director Michael Steiner is a feature-length mosaic taken from over 1,400 hours of film material showing people going about their lives in summer 2019. 

Inspired by Ridley Scott’s 2010 documentary “Life in a Day” taken from footage of people around the world, the Swiss film features people as diverse as a midwife caring for newborns, a military recruit at target practice, youngsters at a climate change demonstration, and a young man with Asperger’s talking about his condition.  

The project is a collaboration between the freesheet 20Minuten and several other Swiss companies. Its soundtrack features work by the Hollywood composer Michael Stearns.

With cinemas closed until at least June 8 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the film is being streamed on various platforms and can be purchased on DVD.