Switzerland, known as the “Country of Mountains” in central Europe, is featured by its rugged terrain, with the Alps stretching across its southern territory. The natural scenery of snow-capped mountains and four different national languages give this country a unique and mysterious charm.

In 1950, China and Switzerland officially established diplomatic relations, carrying out in-depth exchanges and cooperation in economy, culture, and science and technology. In recent years, as Swiss films have continuously emerged at international film festivals, they are no longer known solely for documentaries. Feature films such as Unrest and The Girl and the Spider have also won the hearts of domestic movie fans. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the Beijing Film Panorama of the 15th Beijing International Film Festival grandly launched the Swiss Film Week, presenting six remarkable Swiss films, offering movie fans a cinematic journey spanning nearly 50 years of Swiss film-making evolution.

Highlights: The atypical portrayal of motherhood, stemming from the female creator's deep thinking on maternal ethics.

“I have the courage to defy the world. I am more than just a mother.”

She wanders in the mountain village, stealing, setting fires, and telling lies, living by her own rules. She's just a weird woman.

She leaves her three children in a restaurant for a long time, making them cry. Is she a bad mother?

She doesn't understand the worldly social norms, yet she keeps her promise to her children. She dances and cries with them. The courage that has always been in her heart erupts violently for her children.

She loves them, but not just because she is a “mother”.

Highlights: The third of Zürcher's "Animal Trilogy", hate is another face of love.

“A sparrow can fly out of a chimney, but how can you and I escape?”

The film was shortlisted for the Golden Leopard at the 77th Locarno International Film Festival, and won the Roberto Rossellini Award for Best Film at the 8th Pingyao International Film Festival. With a delicate narrative style influenced by David Lynch's Mulholland Dr., the film builds escalating tension of contradictions that suddenly erupts at a certain moment, leaving behind silence and rebirth. Rich colors contrast sharply with the characters' inner darkness. As overexposed sunlight shines through the window lattices, can the darkness within the family be dispelled?

Highlights: An exploration of human nature in extreme environments - I once hated you, but I cannot abandon your life.

“Life begins and ends in mountains covered in snow.”

After his mother's passing, Rein moves to a small village in the Alps, meditates in nature, and becomes a ski instructor. But when his father Gijs visits, Rein's peaceful life is disrupted again, and a crisis strikes suddenly during a mountain expedition. At times the characters are confined to the edges of the frame, at others, they traverse the snow in the Alps. In this extreme and pure environment, life and identity gradually separate, revealing the original nature of human beings. The film was shortlisted for Best Film of Venice Days at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.

Highlights: Mountains stand tall, each seeking a new way of life; Meeting by chance, we share the landscape and the fury.

"Who mourns the lost? All are but travelers in a foreign land."

Following Fog and Closing Time, director Nicole Vogele returns with her latest masterpiece, winning the Grand Jury Prize at Visions du Réel and earning a nomination for Best Documentary of Golden Goblet Awards at the Shanghai International Film Festival, China. The film focuses on the border area between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, showing the lives of the indigenous people there and the refugees' escaping journey across the border. The camera moves in a slow rhythm, presenting the changing landscapes of seasons in the mountains, with snows and rains falling constantly. The fluid motion of moving images, combined with a slightly heavy music, invites the audience to deeply feel the trauma of the border town, triggering reflections on war and peace.

A still from The Landscape and the Fury

Highlights: A master's classic. In the constructed reality, we, like salamanders, regenerate tenaciously.

"This is the salamander, a spirit from the fire."

As an early work by Alain Tanner, a leading figure of the Swiss New Wave, the film won the Artistic Contribution Award at the Directors Forum of the 1971 Berlin International Film Festival. Playwright Pierre and his poet friend Paul co-create a script, leading them to encounter a girl named Rosemonde. As the fates of the three become entangled, the line between reality and fiction begins to blur. Alain Tanner uses black and white cinematography to create vivid and amazing female characters, delivering a critical core with a multi-layered narrative structure.

Highlights: Surrounded by the industrial machine, we strive towards a future of happiness.

"Time is slipping away. I am breaking apart. Everything is going to be alright."

Production and labor, dreams and the future. With rich colors different from The Salamander, Alain Tanner paints a landscape of Swiss society in the postwar 1950s and 60s, depicting the lives of people from different social classes, skillfully blending black-and-white images representing the past. In the endless cycle of unemployment, job hunting and unemployment again, time instead has become a sharp weapon of capitalism. Life always seems constrained, but at least we can get together and look forward to the millennium yet to come. The film, seemingly loose in form but coherent in spirit, is a must-see masterpiece that reflects on the post-war Swiss society in the 20th century.