Chris the Swiss

About the movie

Christian "Chris" Würtenberg was a young Swiss reporter/journalist attracted by war activities. So he had joined an army training in Namibia before taking an interest in the Balkan war, joining the PIV, a paramilitary group of activists which was in the end integrated into the Croatian army who were fighting the Serbs. He was not really a soldier type of man, became an outsider and ended tragically before he could actually write the book he intended to publish about the war atrocities. He was called Chris or "the Swiss" by the fighters. His cousin, Anja Kofmel, is the director of the film which has archive footing, live interviews, and animation parts. She traveled to the war sites 25 years after the actual events and interviewed people who had known Chris. Haunting animation scenes really show the horrors of war for the civilians and also the soldiers. There is no good or bad side, both sides are involved in war crimes. Chris investigated perhaps naively about the reasons people had to act the way they did. The hybrid film technique is mastered to perfection by director Anja Kofmel.—Rudolf Weiler