Carlos Leal

Michel Hüttner

Luana Cea

The first film about second-generation Swiss immigrants: A Turkish ice hockey player explains why, in Switzerland, he could only fall in love with an Italian. A young Italian woman explains why she prefers to rap in English. A hip-hop artist with Hispanic origins fights for his political rights and the director reminisces on how, despite his Arabic roots, he's been persecuted as a Jew. Babylon 2 reflects the rise of a new urban culture in Switzerland, which is instigated by the second generation of immigrants and the help of electronic media.

The film interweaves the stories of two generations of Palestinians. It tells the story of Elias Jubran, a music teacher and oud maker from Al Jaleel (Galilee), and his children, who live in a totally different way in Israel... or who have left the country in search of a more open way of life. The film shows what it takes for a culture - mired in the threatening environment of the State of Israel - to continue to thrive.

In 1996, Kalashnikovs were publicly burnt in Timbuktu. At the time, the "Flame of Peace" symbolized the end of the Touareg rebellion, which had been suppressed in bloody massacres. That year, the rebels laid down their arms. That year, with the government having made promises, the families who had fled abroad left Mauritania, Algeria and Burkina Faso to return home. In the fight for rights and survival waged by this people, who for centuries had found their freedom in one of the world's most inhospitable regions, the Sahara, culture and arms have been in direct competition ever since.

In May of 1982 Julio Cortázar, the Argentinean writer and his companion in life, Carol Dunlop set out in their VW bus on a journey along the highway from Paris to Marseille that, for each of them, was to be their final one. Twenty-five years later, Océane Madelaine and Jocelyn Bonnerave set out to undertake the journey again.

Two musicians whose biographies could not be more different. And yet, they are not only linked by a passion for music that they share with their spouses. All three have enjoyed successful careers in their home countries, and now need to find new bearings in Switzerland. Parallel to her concerts, pianist Tamriko Kordzaia, originally from Georgia, gives lessons at a music school, composer and singer Samir Essahbi, who is Moroccan, performs regularly with his band, and Turkish singer Ülkü Fazilet Bozkurt is starting to perform again.

A hamlet in Finland's sprawling tundra. It became the second home of Emmental's Hans Ulrich Schwaar. He lives here with his friend and host, Sami Iisakki-Matias Syväjärvi, owner of the largest reindeer herd in Finland. The reindeer and the rhythm of nature determine daily life. Peter Ramseier has captured this life and the friendship between two men from different cultures in superb, poetic images.

The film portrays people with different time consciousness. A computer scientist works non-stop. Only when she gets home can she relax. A young employee suffers from sleep disorders and stress at work, and sinks into a state of decompensation. Ski trainer Didier Plaschy looks at the effects of slowing down and speeding up. Time historian Karlheinz Geissler takes a piquantly humorous look at our fast-paced society.