Synopsis

What drives our world becomes paradigmatic in Davos: Traditional farming in contrast to the global elite, who operate untied from all places, virtually without touching the ground. Davos is a film about equilibrium and contrast, about capitalism in our fractured world and the impact of the powerful on the many.

Director's Statement

Looking to decipher the fractured world of ours was the driving force to make this film. We‘ve been following the everyday life in Davos for over a year.

The challenges of our society are shown through the lives of the citizens of Davos contrasted by the global elite at the World Economic Forum‘s annual meeting: The value and the price of money, nature, tradition, globalisation, identity, community and self empowerment are at stake.

We wanted to deliver a profound view of the town of Davos and its citizens in contrast to a behind the curtains view of the World Economic Forum‘s annual meeting, glooming over the citys throughout the year.

It‘s a chance to raise awareness to global issues that concern all of us. Davos concerns all of us.

2020 is the 50th anniversary of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Vision du réel - Catalogue Text

Beneath its reassuring façade, Davos is each year at the heart of the Western and capitalistic world. Every chief of State and everyone who is someone in the money world meets with their peers in the Swiss village. What is really at stake in Davos ? Julia Niemann and Daniel Hoesl create a fascinating observational documentary in which judgement is never handed out and where the dialectics of conflicts matter more than easy and reassuring answers. The film asks the viewer some uncomfortable questions by focusing on challenges that the new global economy poses to the world.

Thus, through this extremely precise work strategy, the directors conjure an almost hyper realistic set of conflicts that reverberates through precise cinematic choices. Davos portrays postmodern capitalism in an utterly convincing way. How it impacts everyone’s life and how it threatens our environment. Because the real question is: is it acceptable that a handful of powerful white men decide what the future shall look like for everybody else? – Giona Nazzaro, Vision du Réel

A European Film Conspiracy

directed by Daniel Hoesl. Written and Co-directed by Julia Niemann. Produced by Georg Aschauer, Julia Niemann, Daniel Hoesl. Image by Andi Widmer, Written by Julia Niemann, Edited by Gerhard Daurer, Sound by Andi Pils, Eva Hausberger, Reto Stamm. Runtime approx. 99‘