HOW SWISS IS IT? Cyril Schäublin, who joins the Zürcher brothers as one of the leading auteurs of the first major wave of Helvetian filmmaking since the heyday of Alain Tanner and Daniel Schmid half a century ago, appears determined in his first two features to demolish the myth of Swiss probity, especially in the echt Schweizer realms of finance and industry. Schäublin made his brilliant debut with the ironically titled Those Who Are Fine (2017), about a young worker at a Zurich call center hawking internet services to vulnerable seniors the provider’s portentous name is Everywhere
During a six-month residency with Alchemy Film & Arts, Mark Lyken developed Notes from a Low Orbit, a feature-length study of Hawick in the Scottish Borders, where Alchemy is based. Lyken reflects on making the film and its rapturous hometown premiere.