Reviews

A very nice Swiss film, a comedy with genuine Swiss characters. The film proves in a wonderful way the opposite of the cliché about the Swiss humour.

The film is nowadays, nearly 30 years after its production, more actual than ever, disclosing a lot of the hidden intolerance of our Swiss mainstream community against everything which does not fit into what this community expects to be "Swiss behaviour".

The story is about how people can get Swiss citizenship. It is not exaggerated at all! (I as well had to enjoy this procedure few years ago, with the local police officers, coming into our house, checking what we where eating, asking us what we think about the Swiss Army, where do we go for shopping, talking to the neighbourhood, etc.).

I love this film.

The characters are genuine, funny, sensitive, tragic... just human. They are sympathetic with their small weaknesses and their daily problems. The movie gives a realistic description of the daily life of ordinary people in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn has the star role. In fact the movie seems like a declaration of love to this city, although when compared to Woody Allen's "Manhattan", the approach is completely different.

The message is in a way surprising (maybe because of my European bias): Even in this money driven, rough, fast living, time-is-money, urban and individualistic environment there is a lot of love, friendship and humanity. Humanity means also that we do things which eventually do not make very much sense, are not logical and which may be very emotional. Smoking belongs to such activities. It is an activity which needs a work break. It gives us an opportunity for a stop and for starting rethinking issues. Therefore the small cigar shop, which appears like an island within a stormy ocean, like the antipode to the bustle environment.

Sometimes some of the hurry enters the shop, but the clocks seem to tick differently there and at the end everything calms down. I like this movie.