Nemesis
2020 | 131 min | Documentary
The freight yard is making way for a prison: a place of mobility is becoming a place of stagnation.
Thomas Imbach
ActorDirectorThomas Imbach is a Swiss director known for his work in both feature films and documentaries. Some of his notable works include "Ghetto" (2006), "Mary Queen of Scots" (2013), and "Day Is Done" (2011). He has received critical acclaim for his unique visual style and storytelling approach. While there isn't a comprehensive list of awards publicly available, Imbach has been recognized at various film festivals for his contributions to cinema.
Films
Say God Bye
2023 | 119 min | Documentary
A forty-year obsession with Jean-Luc Godard propels Thomas Imbach on a pilgrimage to meet the “God of cinema”.
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
2001 | 90 min | Timeless
Green Party icon Petra Kelly is shot in her sleep by her partner Gert Bastian, an ex-Federal Armed Forces general, before he kills himself.
Lenz
2006 | 93 min | Drama
An unconventional portrait of a man whose motto in life is reminiscent of Romantic poets: a genius writes their own rules.
I Was a Swiss Banker
2007 | 75 min | Romance
A banker smuggling black money catapults himself out of his old life with a dip into the cold lake water.
Ghetto
1997 | 116 min | Timeless
A touching documentary about the everyday life of Zurich's forgotten youth.
Happy Too
2002 | 61 min | Documentary
A raw, honest look at the relationship between filmmakers, actors, and the characters they jointly create.
My Brother, My Love
2018 | 114 min | Drama
Lena (16) is in love with her brother and would rather indulge in this fantasy than face reality.
Day Is Done
2011 | 111 min | Documentary
A 35mm camera films from a window, with messages from the answering machine in the background. Slowly an imaginary biography unfolds.
Well Done
1994 | 73 min | Timeless
The world we have just entered resembles a futurist machine. It is a colossus of concrete and glass, with a computer heart heart deep inside.
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Brunaupark
2024 | 92 min | Documentary
BRUNAUPARK opens in a Zurich housing estate with five residential blocks, 405 apartments and around 800 residents, all living under the threat of demolition. The Credit Suisse pension fund plans to replace the site with a new development, and 239 households receive eviction notices, turning everyday life into a prolonged state of uncertainty. Over the course of three years, Felix Hergert and Dominik Zietlow observe a community in transition. Some residents move away, others challenge the evictions ...
Day Is Done
2011 | 111 min | Documentary
Over a period of more than 15 years, Swiss director Thomas Imbach filmed with a 35mm camera from the window of his Zurich studio. Accompanied by authentic answering machine messages from 1988 to 2003, a cinematic portrait of the invisible man behind the camera emerges. The combination of image and sound forms a fictional autobiography that addresses personal experiences such as birth, death, separation, and new beginnings, while at the same time painting a universal landscape of the soul. The film ...
Lenz
2006 | 93 min | Drama
Filmmaker Lenz leaves his hometown of Berlin to explore the background of Georg Büchner's fragment “Lenz” in the Vosges mountains. But soon he exchanges the Alsatian landscape for higher altitudes and more emotional terrain: driven by the desire to see his son Noah, he sets off for the winter sports resort of Zermatt in the Swiss Alps. There, with Noah's help, he arranges a meeting with his ex-wife Natalie, whom he still loves. A small idyll blossoms in the rediscovered closeness to his son and in ...
Zwischennutzung
2022 | 95 min | Documentary
Nestled in a niche between the city's motorway and industrial sites lies a former meat factory, now home to a vibrant community of entrepreneurs and creatives. From the growl-metal band's rehearsal room to the conceptual artist's studio, the film uncovers a patchwork of interests and perspectives, as diverse as the city itself. Kowalski's documentary offers a refreshing take on urban development, challenging the notion of gentrification by celebrating the beauty of impermanence. With a laid-back ...
Happy Too
2002 | 61 min | Documentary
HAPPY TOO (2002) is an experimental documentary film by Swiss director Thomas Imbach, which functions both as a standalone work and as a meta-commentary on his previous feature film HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN (2001). While the previous film fictionalizes the tragic relationship between Green Party politician Petra Kelly and ex-general Gert Bastian, HAPPY TOO takes a look behind the scenes and highlights the dynamic between actors Linda Olsansky and Herbert Fritsch during filming. In HAPPY TOO, Imbach ...
Uncanny Me
2022 | 44 min | Documentary
In an era where virtual reality intertwines intricately with our everyday lives, a young model named Lale contemplates an unorthodox solution to her growing disillusionment with the demanding world of modeling. Struck by the idea of creating a digital clone to take her place in the exhausting shoots, Lale embarks on a thought-provoking journey into the realms of identity, freedom, and technological morality. Katharina Pethke's UNCANNY ME unfolds this narrative through a blend of documentary realism ...
Tlatelolco
2011 | 75 min | Documentary
Lotte Schreiber's documentary illuminates the history of Mexico City by looking at a housing complex in the capital – an epicenter of Mexican cultural history. The Nonoalco Tlatelolco housing complex at the Plaza de las tres Culturas in Mexico City is a vertical city built by modernist architect Mario Pani in the early 1960s as a modern utopia for 72,000 inhabitants. As early as 1521, the Aztecs faced off against the Spanish conquerors at this site. Bloody student protests followed in 1968 and ...
The Net_GO TO TRIAL
2004 | 90 min | Icons & Media Art
Media coverage of the trial of Ted Kaczynski, better known as the “Unabomber,” was sensationalist and distorted. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski carried out a series of bombings in the United States targeting executives of major airlines and scientists from various elite universities. He was arrested by the FBI in 1996, but a public trial never took place. Instead, Kaczynski accepted a plea bargain in 1998, thus avoiding both the death penalty and committal to a psychiatric institution. Since then, ...
From the West
2016 | 61 min | Documentary
The camera glides its way through Germany, or more precisely through West Germany, passing by house facades, highway exits, and miniature golf courses. The idea that "West" is more than just a point on the compass is Juliane Henrich's starting point for an essayistic journey through her personal past and the past of German society as a whole.
Re-Destruction
2021 | 45 min | Documentary
Intertwining aerial photos from pre-war times, 1990s documentary footage, and current-day shots with narrations from unseen Beirut residents, this film uncovers the ignored plight of port-side neighborhoods, revealing a history marred by corruption and relentless construction. Acclaimed Lebanese director Simon El Habre's documentary delves into Beirut’s harsh reconstruction policies, spanning over four decades. It portrays the consequences of corrupt governance and arbitrary rebuilding, which have ...