Ondes de choc – Sirius
Frédéric Mermoud, Switzerland, 2018o
A free cinematic reconstruction of the mass suicide of the "Sonnentempler" sect in the Fribourg Alps in 1994: Five days before the planned collective suicide of the Sirius sect, a teenager tries to make contact with his parents, who are separated from him. His attempts to escape the rigid pressure of the community thwart the plans of the lovers, who manipulate the sect at will with carrots and whips. Additional time pressure is created by a jumped off follower who reclaims her money from the sect superiors and shows up with a lawyer in the Sirius estate.
Frédéric Mermoud's contribution to Ondes de choc was received more critically by reviewers and - according to the IMDB rating - more reservedly by the audience than the other three contributions in the series. The reason for this could be the incredibly cheap tricks of the guru and his henchmen, which are at stake here and which make it difficult to empathize with the characters: How can someone crazy and ruthless enough to come up with such manipulations? And how, on the other hand, someone gullible enough to get caught up in this web of esoteric liquorice rasping and unmistakable threats? Mermoud succeeds in staging one as well as the other in a credible manner. It is in the nature of the subject that he touches on the border to farce, where the tragedy of the events dissolves into grotesque scenes and arrangements.
Andreas FurlerClassieux à son habitude, Mermoud réussit à apporter une touche originale à un dossier si souvent revisité par journalistes et artistes qu’il semblait saturé d’infos à jamais.
Cécile LecoultreGalleryo
