Chris the Swiss

Film-maker Anja Kofmel was ten years old when her cousin, the journalist Christian Würtenberg, died under mysterious circumstances in Croatia. When she began working on the film about her cousin, she was the same age as he was when he died: 27 years old. The journalist’s curiosity led Christian Würtenberg to Croatia’s war zone in the 1990s. The documentary film-maker’s curiosity led Kofmel to the same place years later. To some extent, she is continuing Chris’ research by investigating the circumstances surrounding his death. Was he even still working as a journalist when he died? He was found dead wearing the uniform of a mercenary, for he had joined the international radical right-wing mercenary force PIV (First International Platoon of Volunteers). Did he let himself be roped in by the warmongers? Or was he working undercover in an attempt to obtain valuable journalistic information about the warring parties?
It is impossible to completely reconstruct the events – it thus remains for Kofmel to reconcile herself to events, which she impressively manages to achieve thanks to various methods: talking heads alternate with animated sequences, documentary footage is mixed with animation to create presumed occurrences which play a plausible role in the reconstruction. When it comes to courage, Anja Kofmel is equal to her cousin. She does not relent until she herself has the most terrifying figures – even including the terrorist llich Ramirez Sanchez – in front of the camera or at the very least, speaking on the phone from behind prison bars. Anja Kofmel (*1982) completed her studies in Animation at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Her graduation film on the same topic was screened at almost thirty festivals around the world. “Chris the Swiss” has also had a brilliant start, with screenings in Cannes, Annecy and Zagreb, among other festivals. (as)