Erste Hilfe für die Seele

Switzerland, February 1999
FILM, Documentary, 53 min.

Save as Favorite
directed by
Simone Bucher
Written by
Simone Bucher
Status
In distribution

Is it possible to want to go on living after experiencing the horrors of war? As well as doing physical harm, wars eat into the souls of the survivors. The Rwanda genocide of 1994 killed nearly a million people. For years to come those who escaped death will carry mental scars as well as physical ones. The only psychiatric clinic in Rwanda was destroyed, its staff and patients murdered. Switzerland has tried to offer first aid for the soul, training a new generation of healers. In the rebuilt clinic the contradictory nature of the human condition, the dark and the light, come face to face in the persons of those who have lived through the horrors of genocide, and the young staff of the clinic who treat their charges with infinite patience and understanding. The result is a rare insight into violence and what comes after, how people come to terms with tragedy, wherever it may occur.

credits

World Premiere
February 1999
Original Version
German,  colour, Beta SP, 53 min.
Production
SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, SRF/3sat, RSI Radiotelevisione svizzera, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse
Producer
Simone Bucher, Luis Bolliger
directed by
Simone Bucher
Written by
Simone Bucher
Cinemato­graphy
Pio Corradi
Location Sound Mix
Pio Corradi

World Sales / World Rights

World Rights
SRF/3sat

Worldwide Distribution

Switzerland
SRF/3sat Distribution
Newsletter