Descent into Paradise / Descente au Paradis

country, year

Switzerland, 2010

genre

documentary

running time

45′

directed by

Israël Feferman

language

French

subtitles

English

synopsis

Admir comes from Bosnia. His family came to Switzerland as asylum seekers when he was ten. Here or there, what he has known best is violence. Endured or perpetrated. Now he shares his story with us. Like an indelible mark to leave before being expelled. Admir is twenty years old.

about the author

Israël Feferman was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he studied philosophy, politics and psychology. He arrived in Switzerland in 1989 and began learning audiovisual language, attending different courses on writing, directing, editing etc. As a member of Cinema Society of the University of Geneva, he directed his first documentary 1991: Grisélidis Real, maternal bonds and prostitution, about an exceptional woman who was a prostitute, a writer, a painter and the mother of four children. In 1996 he directed Bonne nuit, a short film dealing with the theme of intolerance through a conflict opposing two neighbours. Israël regularly collaborates with several institutions such as the University of Geneva, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, where he has cofounded an audiovisual unit with historians, the Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation, for which he has directed many videos vulgarizing international trading laws. He is currently writing a new documentary project about the universal values conveyed by a specific form of cult in Africa.

festivals, awards

International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2011