In the Shadow of the Mountain

Directed by Danielle Jaeggi

Documentary feature film | 2008 | 67 min

Producers : Elisa Garbar, Heinz Dill

Produced by Louise Productions ,Les Films d'ici, Graffiti Doc, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse, SRG SRR, ARTE

Synopsis

The mythology of sanatoriums was immortalized in a famous novel by Thomas Mann who used them as a metaphor for Europe’s headlong rush towards the First World War : a world apart on the sunny peaks of the Swiss Alps, in elegant Art Deco buildings, where time no longer seems to exist.

Naps in the sun on the terrace, short walks and frequent meals in the sumptuous dining rooms; a world of unique relationships, of light-hearted despair, inhabited by young people, where the echoes of the world are muffled…

The tuberculosis also has a very unusual status: “The whole disease is simply transformed by love”, writes Mann, falling in with a long tradition that sees it as a “spiritual” affliction that heightens desire and ennobles the patient…

Trailer

Credits

A film proposed by : Enrica CAPRA

Written and directed by : Danielle JAEGGI

Participants (in order of appearance) : Vincent BARRAS - Historian of medicine, Urs GREDIG - Historian and journalist, Dr. phil. Uriel GAST - Historian at the University of Zurich & Dr. Marc PERRENOUD - Historian

Director of photography : Ned BURGESS

Camera assistant : Nina BERNFELD

Additional camera : Milivoj IVKOVIC

Gaffer - grip : André PINKUS

Sound operator: Patrick BECKER

Props master : Chloé POMPON-LEVAINVILLE

Props assistant : Robert DILL

Editing : Sophie REITER

Color grading : Thibault CAQUOT

Sound editing, illustration and mix : Jérôme VITTOZ

Archives research : Guenda BERNEGGER

Transcriptions and translations : Bettina GREINER, Barbara ERNI, Heike HURST