MESSIES, EIN SCHÖNES CHAOS
Switzerland 2011 – Director: Ulrich Grossenbacher – Original language: Swiss German – Subtitles: English, French, German – Length: 117 min.
“It would take many lifetimes...” explains one of the film’s protagonists and then climbs with a helmet camera over the towers of music cassettes that stand like barrages in the narrow corridors of her jam-packed apartment.
For three years Ulrich Grossenbacher spent time with four Swiss “messies” in the most orderly country in the world. These people arrange their lives with an astounding amount of fantasy and creativity yet they always break down in the face of the intense human conflict that is caused by their passion for collecting.
With empathy instead of judgement the film takes us into the messies’ world and, in so doing, gently scrutinises the prevailing norms of our throwaway, consumer society. Andrea Naica-Loebell
English/Original Title: A Glorious Mess. Writer: Ulrich Grossenbacher, Thomas Moll, Damaris Lüthi. Camera: Ulrich Grossenbacher. Sound: Niklaus Wenger, Balthasar Jucker, Wendelin Schmidt-Ott, Peter von Siebenthal, Olivier JeanRichard. Editing: Maya Schmid. Music: Resli Burri. Production: Fair&Ugly filmproduktion GmbH. Producer: Ulrich Grossenbacher. Co-Producers: SRF, 3sat. International Sales: Fair&Ugly filmproduktion GmbH. Distribution: Fair&Ugly filmproduktion GmbH.
