Once upon a time, there was a Swiss banker in a black Porsche who was on his way to the next financial transaction. As if struck by lightning, he decides to turn his young, dynamic existence on its back and dives underwater with a bag full of bank notes …
Witches in helicopters, singing mermaids, suspicious raven eyes – Thomas Imbach's new feature film is a loony underwater fairy tale. Whenever his hero comes up from out of the Swiss Sea, he has to endure new tests. Like in Imbach's contemporary adaptation of "Lenz" about a director in crisis, the landscape is here also more than just a backdrop. The snowcovered and overcast mountains familiar from that winter tale have been altered in I Was a Swiss Banker into inviting lake waters. A gentle breeze stirs the leaves, and meadows in bloom convey summer lightness. But, like in all fairy tales, everything is determined here by the all-or-nothing principle. As such, it's about nothing less than the search for true love, for the partner to the classic ending: "and they lived happily ever after."
Anke Leweke
Production: Bachim Film, Zurich
Screenplay: Thomas Imbach, Eva Kammerer, Jürg Hassler
Cinematographer: Jürg Hassler, Thomas Imbach
Editor: Thomas Imbach, Jürg Hassler, Patrizia Stotz
Cast: Beat Marti, Laura Drasbæk, Anne-Grethe Bjarup Riis, Sandra Medina, Helena af Sandeberg, Mellika Melani, Angelica Biert, Lale Yavas
Format: 35mm, Color
Running time: 75 minutes
Languages: English, Swiss German, Danish, Swedish, Rhaeto-Romanic, Turkish
