Mission en enfer

Mission des Grauens - Mission in Hell

Frédéric Gonseth

From 1941 onwards 250 Swiss medical doctors and nurses on a humaniatrian mission of the Swiss Red Cross on the Eastern Front are integrated for several months into the Wehrmacht against their will. They return with unbearable emotions and capital testemonies on the genocide of Soviet war prisoners and Jews on the Eastern Front. Switzerland refuses to listen to them.

"To this day, the old man is unable to forget the eyes of the Soviet prisoner of war he met in Smolensk in 1942, in those days when he was still a young idealistic adventure-seeking doctor. In front of Frédéric Gonseth’s camera, he recalls how he volunteered to take part in a Swiss medical mission on the Eastern Front. At the time, his comrades and himself (about two hundred and fifty doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers) believed they were taking part in a humanitarian operation organised by the Red Cross. Some of the members of the expedition only realise during the shooting of the film to what extent they have been the tool of purely political motives, of a diplomatic attempt to ease the increasing pressure exerted by Germany.
The film is based upon the reserved but lucid accounts of the mission’s participants, whose diaries are also partly revealed to the public. Photographs and remarkable archive footage bring back the indescribable horror of the war, in an often almost unbearable depiction of human barbarity. The film also deals with the question of responsibility. Why have those nightmarish visions never been mentioned to this day? Was the Swiss government aware of what was happening on the front? MISSION EN ENFER is an amazingly well documented enquiry that takes us to the ancient battlefields of the furthermost bounds of Europe, revealing a page of Swiss history that is weighed down with contradictions and compromises."
Visions du Réel Nyon

Frédéric Gonseth

Born in 1950 in Lausanne. 1972 Receives degree in Sociology from the University of Lausanne. 1973-75 Trainee journalist. Since 1980 has worked as an independent director-producer. Since 1986 numerous reports for the broadcast French Swiss Broadcasting Service (TSR). Founding member of the Fondation vaudoise pour le cinéma and currently president of ARC (Association Romande du Cinéma). Founding member and president of Archimob.

2010 KALENA
2010 LEMAN-MEKONG
2008 CITADELLE HUMANITAIRE
2005 GROS MOTS, PETITS SABOTS
2004 HISTOIRE C'EST MOI - REGARDS EN ARRIERE
2003 MISSION EN ENFER
2002 LES BARRICADES MISTERIEUSES
1999 ANIMAL CITY - LA CITE ANIMALE
1995-98 LONGUES OREILLES
1997 ESCLAVES D'HITLER
1997 LA MONTAGNE MUETTE
1997 CE FOU DE TÖPFER
1995 CHOEURS EN BALADE
1994 LE CIEL ET LA BOUE
1992 L'UKRAINE A PETITS PAS
1991 ESCAPADE MOLDAVE
1989 L'HISTOIRE DU FRANC SUISSE
1980 LA FACTURE D'ORGUE

News

MISSION EN ENFER de Frédéric Gonseth le 14 septembre sur TSR 2 2007-09-13
FLUCHEN UND FLÜSTERN von Frédéric Gonseth und Catherine Azad im Kino in Zürich 2006-06-07
frog Festival du film romand in Genf 2006-06-06

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Mission en enfer