DÉBUT SANS FIN

FEATURE FILM IN DEVELOPMENT
SCREENPLAY & DIRECTOR: TOVE STILLE
SUPPORTED BY MIGROS CULTURE PERCENTAGE STORY LAB 

STORY

Two women long for a new beginning and set out to form an activist, hedonistic community. Hundreds respond to their casting call – marking the start of an international socio-political movement for reinvention. But the founders must also confront the reality of endings, for they and their fellow revolutionaries share one thing: they are all over 70.

PROCESS

The story is being developed through a collective process based on a growing pool of collaborators aged between 65 and 85 – supported by the Migros Culture Percentage Story Lab.

Tove Stille draws on their extensive experience in theatre and performance, where they have successfully implemented similar processes and strategies. The aim is to create authentic, multi-layered characters within realistic worlds – and to challenge prevailing stereotypes around ageing.

As part of the initial development phase, a project teaser was created in collaboration with six selected individuals of advanced age. It introduces the film’s core themes and documents Tove Stille’s working method in shaping the story (see film stills).

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

With DÉBUT SANS FIN, we want to challenge the narrow, often reductive images of ageing that dominate our western culture. Ageing is not decline – it is transformation, resistance, and sometimes even a new beginning.

Our film centres on a radical community of people over 70 who refuse to disappear quietly. It asks: How do we want to live as we grow older? How do we want to be seen? And what kind of society do we want to shape – for ourselves, and for those who come after us?

DÉBUT SANS FIN confronts ageism, breaks with stereotypes and opens up a space for bodies, desires and identities that are too often rendered invisible. Because sooner or later, this concerns all of us.

CREDITS PROJECT TEASER

COLLABORATORS/PROTAGONISTS VICTOR BURTSCHER, LAURENCE DESARZENS, BARBARA LÄUCHLI, ROGER NYDEGGER, ROLF STUBER, MONIKA WALDMEIER 

​​SCREENPLAY AND DIRECTOR TOVE STILLE

CAMERA MICHAEL SCHINDEGGER

EDITING DANIEL RUTZ

MUSIC  JACOB SUSKE

ASSISTENT & ORIGINAL SOUND FELICE STOCKHAMMER

GRAPHICS CAROLINE PLANK-BACHSELTEN

FRENCH SUBTITLES ANNE BUFFETRILLE

PRODUCTION VERA VON GUNTEN | TOMAS SCHWEIGEN

SUPPORTED BY MIGROS CLUTURE PERCENTAGE STORY LAB, WALDER STIFTUNG AND STIFTUNG ANNE-MARIE SCHINDLER