Luchsinger and the Gods
Financial difficulties and strokes of fate lead four Swiss senior citizens to Bali. A comedy with a quietly laconic tone about burdensome memories, insights into life, last wishes and the unexpected chance of happiness that is not necessarily due to the gods.
Because he can't make ends meet in Switzerland with his pension, Ruedi Luchsinger from Bern emigrates to Bali. At the resort where he is staying, the former taxi driver meets three other Swiss people in a similar situation. They become friends. They explore their new surroundings, talk about life, ask about its meaning and end up asking whether they would be different if they were born somewhere else and what that would feel like. And then suddenly death peeps round the corner, but life goes on.
Known from TV and the stage as an author, Markus Köbeli wanted to make his first film as a director in Indonesia with a small budget, a tiny team and spontaneous actors. Thanks to the involvement of Movie Studio Bali, it turned into something more: a Swiss comedy for senior citizens that takes up themes such as old age, poverty and emigration in the wake of films such as ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’.
The film is well cast with Andrea Zogg, Max Rüdlinger, Jürg C. Meier and Manfred Liechti in the leading roles. The prominent quartet play their way cheerfully through an abstruse story whose appeal is fuelled by the clash of two cultures as well as the subtle laconicism with which the protagonists view their lives. Rounded off with a twist that demands quite a bit of criminal inventiveness from Luchsinger and his mates, Markus Köbeli has succeeded in creating a refreshingly unpretentious comedy about the little bit of courage it takes to start all over again.