It might come as a surprise to some of you, but yes Switzerland has a Music industry and even produces some video clips. The Solothurner Filmtage presented a selection of the Best Swiss Video Clips and I have to say, they were quite disappointing, all but one: «Trauma» by Jelena Vujović.

In this music video, we first see a truck driving through Switzerland and we hear a song about the trauma a certain country caused (we instantly think about islamic countries like Iran), we then see a black veil swirling in the air, forming the shape of a woman (or a kind of dementor for those who know Harry Potter) and then we see veiled women from behind. The clip is very poetic, has a strong message and beautiful images of this polemic piece of fabric moving through the air (I wonder if it was animated or how Vujović made it look so aesthetical).

The festival programmers were clever enough to put «Trauma», the best clip in my eyes, at the end, so I was happy to have seated through the annoying «Cadavre exquis» (16 min) by Emmanuel Vion-Dury showing two very experimental musicians fooling around and making cacophonies. On a more humorous level «Pistache» by Julien Ledermann and Joaquim Perez, set somewhere in a village of the Canton of Neuchâtel, we see a group of partying young people and we hear a rather original french song, perfectly illustrated (or was it invented on the basis of the images?) by the footage: a guy with a gangster medal and grillz on his teeth drinking beer in a fountain, two guys putting cervelas sausages in socks and fighting with it, a pink stuffed dolphin and some crazy dance moves… funny and effective, well done!

Then I want to mention “Fuck” by Jonathan Hug, who I happen to know personally. Set in Bern (mostly on the bridge between Kirchenfeld and the old town) and visualizing a song by Soukey the clip is very colorful and original with a high paced editing. Not far away from Berne, in Fribourg’s Bluefactory, Julien Chavaillaz shot the very creative «Decoration», with living statues and a hand pose reminding of the famous fresco by Michelangelo in the Sixtine Chapel.

Some clips were of course animated, like «Synaptic Failure»with fly-overs of Manhattan or «Rainbow Machine» by Bianca Caderas.