Profil Bas

Tigist is a young Ethiopian woman who tries to have her nursing degree recognized by the Swiss authorities in spite of her precarious situation. Over a four year time span, film director Nathalie Flückiger followed her in these efforts. Through this portrait, the film deals with integration as well as the encounter between two cultures.

About the shooting

PROFIL BAS (HOW LOUD SHOULD I SPEAK)grew to a scale I did not expect when I initiated theproject. Actually at that time I chose this subject because I wanted to work with someone in thelong run, but I imagined the shooting was going to last two years at the most. Eventually, theadministrative process Tigist launched in September 2000 to get recognition of her nursingdegree lasted almost four years!As the story progressed, several elements that were not part of the initial project becameessential and asked for specific treatment. Thus certain themes such as Tigist's native culture orSwitzerland's policy towards asylum seekers could not be ignored. In these sequences, that Iwould call investigation sequences, I went to meet Ethiopian community representatives but alsoactors from the social, legal and political areas. The interviews I made with these people helpedme add new perspectives into Tigist's story.Another notable change: the end of the film. When the film was elaborated, Tigist's nursing careexam was the ultimate purpose and thus was supposed to be the end of the project. But PROFIL BAS (HOW LOUD SHOULD I SPEAK)is also about an encounter. Confronted to the impossibility for Tigist totravel out of Switzerland and also to the impossibility for her to have her family coming here, itslowly dawned on me that I would go to Ethiopia myself and that I would then make theconnection between Tigist and the members of her family.