2026 Diplomas – Master Cinema ECAL–HEAD

FILM STUDIES

Tabarak Allah Abbas – Spring Fugue – 2026 #1

by Tabarak Allah Abbas

Spring Fugue is a short film following a 13-year-old Georgian girl living in Switzerland. Over the course of a single day, the film moves through family silence, cultural displacement, and political tensions inherited from the adult world. By deconstructing classical dramaturgical structures, Spring Fugue seeks to place the audience in the same position as the girl's mother: observing, interpreting, and questioning. Within the constraint of a ten-minute format, the film builds tension through gesture, gaze, and movement rather than dialogue or exposition.

FILM STUDIES

Gabrielle Amapakabo – One Fine Evening In Santa Paura

by Gabrielle Amapakabo

One Fine Evening in Santa Paura is a first draft of a feature-length fiction screenplay that blends a coming-of-age story with a fantasy epic. The story follows Craig Melville, a 10-year-old American boy, who spends the summer with his older sister Theo in a small village in Ticino. While the young boy dreams of being noticed by his father, Charles, an absent businessman, he befriends Otto, the mute gardener of the villa they are staying in, who introduces him to the beauty of nature. But Charles' plans for the valley could threaten their budding friendship. This project seeks to explore the staging of silence, childhood, and places as a narrative language in their own right.

FILM STUDIES

Mariam Bitsadze – Spring Fugue – 2026 #2

by Mariam Bitsadze

Spring Fugue is a short film following a 13-year-old Georgian girl living in Switzerland. Over the course of a single day, the film moves through family silence, cultural displacement, and political tensions inherited from the adult world. By deconstructing classical dramaturgical structures, Spring Fugue seeks to place the audience in the same position as the girl's mother: observing, interpreting, and questioning. Within the constraint of a ten-minute format, the film builds tension through gesture, gaze, and movement rather than dialogue or exposition.

FILM STUDIES

Romane Demidoff – Ada s'en va

by Romane Demidoff

On the evening of August 1st, as her entire family prepares to celebrate the Swiss National Day, 20-year-old Ada receives a shock: she is pregnant. Reeling from the news, she flees her suffocating home. While waiting for a bus that never arrives, a car pulls over. Behind the wheel is a young man named Merlin, convinced he has just found Sandra, his long-lost first love. At first surprised, Ada quickly regains her composure and begins pretending to be her. Together, they set off toward Montreux. But their nighttime journey takes an unexpected turn when they discover a little girl hiding in the back seat. On the shores of Lake Geneva, this unlikely trio improvises a fragile, fleeting family, while Ada struggles to come to terms with a shifting identity that she can barely define herself.

FILM STUDIES

Jacob Detwiler – Toilet – 2026 #1

by Jacob Detwiler

Toilet tells the story of two women after the end of the world. The older one builds a toilet by stacking stones, almost like a ritual, while the younger one is drawn to her gestures and the rhythm of her work. The film explores what forms of humanity might remain in such a world, looking at the way someone's habits and sensations can be passed on to another person. As the film has almost no dialogue, it traces the shift from hostility to intimacy through the characters' gestures, gazes, and sound rather than through language. Sound, in particular, is an important element: it reveals emotions and changes in the relationship that the characters do not express through language, and supports the film's most delicate moments.

FILM STUDIES

Michael Girod – Verseau Révolution – 2026 #1

by Michael Girod

Aquarius Revolution is a hybrid documentary that weaves together family history, investigation, and autofiction. Faced with the gradual loss of memory experienced by their grandmother — who was an astrologer — the director sets out to reconstruct the media landscape surrounding Élisabeth Teissier, a prominent astrologer of the same generation, in the hope of rekindling memories and reopening a family dialogue. Combining interviews with archival reenactments, the film deliberately blurs the line between documentary and fiction. In doing so, it reflects on memory, inheritance, and the stories we tell ourselves to give meaning to our lives. This project was developed in collaboration with the Image and Set Design departments at ZHdK.

FILM STUDIES

Michael Girod – In Between – 2026 #1

by Michael Girod

In Between is a fiction short film that explores the experience of migration through an intimate and sensitive perspective. In a world increasingly shaped by displacement, exile, and the pursuit of a better future, this project aims to examine the feelings of uprootedness, nostalgia, and not belonging that often accompany the act of leaving home. The film follows a young Peruvian dancer who has recently moved to Switzerland and finds herself caught between expectations, doubts, and the desire to find her place. Through visual contrasts, sound design, and the expressive use of the body in motion, In Between experiments with different narrative forms to convey this state of being "in between" and questions what it truly means to feel at home.

FILM STUDIES

Michael Girod – Toilet – 2026 #2

by Michael Girod

Toilet tells the story of two women after the end of the world. The older one builds a toilet by stacking stones, almost like a ritual, while the younger one is drawn to her gestures and the rhythm of her work. The film explores what forms of humanity might remain after the end of the world, looking at the way someone's habits and sensations can be passed on to another person. As the film has almost no dialogue, it traces the shift from hostility to intimacy through the characters' gestures, gazes, and sound rather than through language. Sound, in particular, is an important element: it reveals emotions and changes in the relationship that the characters do not express through language, and supports the film's most delicate moments.

FILM STUDIES

Alejandra Gomez Pinilla – In Between – 2026 #2

by Alejandra Gomez Pinilla

In Between is a fiction short film that explores the experience of migration through an intimate and sensitive perspective. In a world increasingly shaped by displacement, exile, and the pursuit of a better future, this project aims to examine the feelings of uprootedness, nostalgia, and not belonging that often accompany the act of leaving home. The film follows a young Peruvian dancer who has recently moved to Switzerland and finds herself caught between expectations, doubts, and the desire to find her place. Through visual contrasts, sound design, and the expressive use of the body in motion, In Between experiments with different narrative forms to convey this state of being "in between" and questions what it truly means to feel at home.

FILM STUDIES

Eunhyoung Ju – Toilet – 2026 #3

by Eunhyoung Ju

Toilet tells the story of two women after the end of the world. The older one builds a toilet by stacking stones, almost like a ritual, while the younger one is drawn to her gestures and the rhythm of her work. The film explores what forms of humanity might remain after the end of the world, looking at the way someone's habits and sensations can be passed on to another person. As the film has almost no dialogue, it traces the shift from hostility to intimacy through the characters' gestures, gazes, and sound rather than through language. Sound, in particular, is an important element: it reveals emotions and changes in the relationship that the characters do not express through language, and supports the film's most delicate moments.

FILM STUDIES

Millan Kiptum – Keeper – 2026 #1

by Millan Kiptum

Keeper is an urban fantasy short film about two friends sharing their last moments together. One is a ghost, the other is a goalkeeper preparing to return home in Africa. Through football and farewell rituals, they drift between home and away, between life and death. Keeper is a reflection on the idea of home as more than just a place. This film shows that, despite living away from home, people always find ways to live, to love, and to care for one another.

FILM STUDIES

Maël Mubalegh – Spring Fugue – 2026 #3

by Maël Mubalegh

Spring Fugue is a short film following a 13-year-old Georgian girl living in Switzerland. Over the course of a single day, the film moves through family silence, cultural displacement, and political tensions inherited from the adult world. By deconstructing classical dramaturgical structures, Spring Fugue seeks to place the audience in the same position as the girl's mother: observing, interpreting, and questioning. Within the constraint of a ten-minute format, the film builds tension through gesture, gaze, and movement rather than dialogue or exposition.

FILM STUDIES

Johanna Pataud – Pétrel

by Johanna Pataud

Pétrel is a feature-length fiction film on the edge of the fantastic. Through the prism of grief, it investigates the porous boundary between human and animal life. Ouessant. An island lashed by wind and teeming with seabirds. Morgane, 28, a naturalist working in nature conservation, lives there in solitude until her younger brother Robin, 26, unexpectedly returns after years without contact. As they struggle to reconnect, tragedy strikes. During a hike along the island's fogbound cliffs, Robin disappears. Suicide? Accident? Morgane refuses to accept either explanation. The island she thought she knew has become strange and unfamiliar. To find the truth, she must follow in her brother's footsteps, crossing boundaries between worlds, shedding her former self, and risking losing herself.

FILM STUDIES

Miguel Rodriguez-Viloria – Keeper – 2026 #2

by Miguel Rodriguez-Viloria

Keeper is an urban fantasy short film about two friends sharing their last moments together. One is a ghost, the other is a goalkeeper preparing to return home in Africa. Through football and farewell rituals, they drift between home and away, between life and death. Keeper is a reflection on the idea of home as more than just a place. This film shows that, despite living away from home, people always find ways to live, to love, and to care for one another.

FILM STUDIES

Lévana Schütz – Verseau Révolution – 2026 #2

by Lévana Schütz

Aquarius Revolution is a hybrid documentary that weaves together family history, investigation, and autofiction. Faced with the gradual loss of memory experienced by their grandmother — who was an astrologer — the director sets out to reconstruct the media landscape surrounding Élisabeth Teissier, a prominent astrologer of the same generation, in the hope of rekindling memories and reopening a family dialogue. Combining interviews with archival reenactments, the film deliberately blurs the line between documentary and fiction. In doing so, it reflects on memory, inheritance, and the stories we tell ourselves to give meaning to our lives. This project was developed in collaboration with the Image and Set Design departments at ZHdK.