Marmorera (film)

Marmorera
Swiss movie poster
Directed by	Markus Fischer
Produced by	Jörg Bundschuh Markus Fischer Josefa Haas
Written by	Markus Fischer Dominik Bernet
Starring	Eva Dewaele Anatole Taubman Corin Curschellas Mavie Hörbiger Ursina Lardi Mathias Gnädinger
Music by	Peter Scherer
Cinematography	Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein
Edited by	Bernhard Lehner
Production companies	Snakefilm GmbH, Kick Film GmbH, Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen SRF, ARTE
Distributed by	Rialto Film AG
Release date	25 January 2007
Running time	95 min
Language	German Swiss German Rumantsch

Marmorera is a 2007 Swiss film. It tells the fictitious story of the small Alpine village Marmorera, the identity of its inhabitants and a mysterious woman. The mystery film was filmed and produced in Switzerland.

Simon Cavegn's grandmother, mother and father were born in Marmorera. Cavegn and his wife Paula spend their honeymoon at the place of his family's origin. Taking some selfies, the newlyweds notice that a fisherman disappears on the Lai da Marmorera, the reservoir of the Marmorera dam. At the same time, a young woman is lying in the fisherman's boat. Cavegn believes that he has rescued the mysterious woman, but when emergency services arrive, the young woman seems to be dead. During the transfer to the hospital in Savognin, the red-haired woman "awakes", and some mysterious events occur in the following days. The confused young woman without identity and language is taken to the Burghölzli psychiatric clinic in Zürich where she soon becomes a puzzling figure of much concern for psychiatrists of the Burghölzli sanatorium in Zürich-Weinegg. Simon Cavegn becomes her psychiatrist in charge, calls the unknown woman Julia, and starts to discover the dark secret of Marmorera.

Cavegn was born and raised in Zürich. His parents died in a car accident. Soon Cavegn suspects that this patient will be much more than another medical problem to solve. Is Julia perhaps dangerous, or is she merely an interesting example of an extraordinary mind? Or is Julia actually a curse from a bygone era, which the residents of Marmorera have carefully tried to hide? Cavegn seems to be the only one to whom Julia spoke; she tells him a kind of visions that are related to the future deaths of people from Marmorera. However, on the videos that were taken in the course of the therapy, there is no sound, and even Julia is physically not able to speak. For Simon's wife Paula, Julia is soon a dangerous rival, although the unusual patient is always quiet and modest – as long as she is allowed to use a bathtub whenever she wants.

In the meantime, at the Marmorera village that was re-erected at the road to the Julier Pass in 1954, bizarre deaths accumulate, and Simon finds increasingly clear connections between these "accidents", his patient and the flooded mountain village at the base of the dam. Cavegn tries to talk about his observations with the chief psychiatrist, with his wife and with his friend, and he also contacts Motta, the attorney in charge who is investigating the increasing number of casualties. In Marmorera, myth and reality meet, and the remaining few inhabitants are convinced that the rumors about a curse are not just fairy tales. The inscription "Resistance" at the facade of a house in the new Marmorera village remembers that not all residents had agreed to sell their village and their country to the Zürich electricity company before the dam was built. Cavegn tries to prevent further casualties. Even the city of Zürich could be threatened by the curse of Marmorea because it draws its power supply from the power plant at the Marmorera reservoir. Cavegn fails in his endeavour.