Movies: Praesens Film

In postwar Germany, a displaced Czech boy, separated from his family during wartime, is befriended by an American GI while the boy's mother desperately searches for him....

French Guyana, not so long ago. Eliott, a young and naive anthropology researcher, goes on an expedition to study the Otopis, a mysterious tribe from the Amazon rainforest. It is also an opportunity for him to get away from the grip of his possessive...

The search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession....

Heidi, a young orphan girl living with her aunt in Frankfurt, is forced to move to the Swiss Alps to live with her ornery grandfather. At first, he resents her presence, but, after a short while, Heidi manages to pierce his gruff exterior, and the tw...

Escaping a Nazi prison train in war-torn Italy, an American and a British soldier set out for the Swiss border and find themselves leading a multi-national party of refugees for the Italian underground....

Kuhle Wampe takes place in early-1930s Berlin. The film begins with a montage of newspaper headlines describing steadily-rising unemployment figures. This is followed by scenes of a young man looking for work in the city and the family discussing the...

In the dense and murky woodlands of provincial Hungary, the search for a child murderer drags a once-respected detective into an all-consuming obsession enshrouded by irresolution and despair, even long after he has been taken off the case. What emer...

Heidi lives with Alp-Öhi n the Swiss Alps in the summer, where she helps Peter tend the goats. In winter, she stays in the village and attends school. One day, a letter arrives from Heidi's German friend, Klara Sesemann, announcing her visit. Klara i...

When a young European woman assumes a false identity in 1920s Argentina, she gets more than she bargained for....

In the 1770s, Swiss farmer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi established a school for poor orphaned children in the Aargau. Up to total exhaustion he sacrificed himself for his pedagogical theories. Five years later, the project of the idealistic educator f...

The Shadows Grow Longer (German: Die Schatten werden länger) is a 1961 Swiss drama film directed by Ladislao Vajda. The film was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 34th Academy Awards, but was not nominated....

The Village (German: Sie fanden eine Heimat) is a 1953 Swiss drama film directed by Leopold Lindtberg....

While on a longer business trip, a wannabe poet urges his beautiful but more simple wife to answer his overly swollen love letters. With no idea how to respond she forwards the letters to a new young school teacher to use his answers instead......

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The film traces Uli's progress from his humble peasant surroundings to the homes of the wealthy and prominent. The characterizations are convincing, and the comic interludes surprisingly subtle and believable for a Swiss film. The no-star cast doomed...

Farmer Heiri has sold his calf and celebrates his temporary wealth in the big city. But in doing so he is confronted with many temptations and dangers: pickpockets, second-rate artists and prostitutes who all try to grab the money of this naive man f...

Soviet, British, French and American allies patrol post-war Vienna....

A poor family with 6 kids that live in a ramshackle hut are suddenly offered a nice flat for cheap - with the landlord hoping they'll drive away their new neighbors whom he wants out of his building....

In exploring sex offenses, particularly against children, this film reveals the inner workings of the Zurich police and INTERPOL as they pursue persons accused of voyeurism, rape, fetishism, sadism, and masochism. After the criminals are arrested and...

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