settima

FrediMMurer

Grauzone [Zones] (Fredi M. Murer, 1979)

Mar

21

1976

Grauzone (1979)

The anonymous, urgent newspaper announcement referencing the oath of secrecy considering a mysterious epidemic, starting March 21, 1976. It lists all the symptoms. DP: Hans Liechti.

Eine mysteriöse EPIDEMIE ist ausgebrochen.

Grauzone [Zones] (Fredi M. Murer, 1979)

May

29

Mount Everest Day

Grauzone (1979)

Julia (Olga Piazza) waking from a unusually deep sleep. DP: Hans Liechti.

Grauzone takes place in one of the three spaces documented in Murer's beautifully titled documentary Wir Bergler in den Bergen sind eigentlich nicht schuld, daß wir da sind [We, the mountain people, who live in the mountains are not really to blame for being there] (1974). One valley lives in tune with its natural rhythm, the second experiences a transition to modernity.

Sie fallen unerwartet in einem traumlosen Schlaf.

The third space, the “grey zone” – both this film's title and a descriptive term for an undefined neutral zone – is where the Bergler have become technology dwellers, where they live on summits made of concrete instead of rock. Where rumours about a #pandemic stir an ancient, unnamed fear. And symptoms: the sudden urge to wander out in nature, an acute melancholy, an overall hyper awareness. A young, prosperous couple become infected and pick up secret radio transmissions. What they believed was concrete, solid, immovable, suddenly shows signs of a shift.