Simon Helbling
director, storyteller
Short, 25′, 2009
Extract from the script: Christoph walks along the alley, deep in thoughts. He turns around the corner and sees her. She stands there, at the other end of the alley. They walk towards each other and stop, as they stand close to each other, both surprised. She smiles. And Christoph walks away. Christoph, 30, just returned from a long travel through Europe. He wanted to change, fill his mind with new experiences and escape his boring everday life. But he hasn’t experienced anything. Everything stayed as it was before. And in one magical moment he encountered as he met a young woman in Paris, he didn’t had the courage to do anything. He gets haunted by his missed chance – until he meets her again. Is he able, to overcome his limitations this time? With “Retour”, we experienced an amazing time on set. Countless creative minds put in months of work, to finish a demanding and intensive movie. We captured a unique atmosphere on film to tell the momentum of a paralyzed youth. But as we started the post production, it became obvious how immature and badly crafted my script was. What a situation! How unfair towards all the colleagues who invested themselves over all those months! So this short, even though it was made perfectly on set, sadly remains unfinished due to a poor script. Cast: Yannick Schmuki, Salvatore Greco, Barbara Kallenberg, Ines Grey, Utz Bodamer, Lisa Brühlmann, René Grünenfelder, Michèle Hirsig, Francisco Medianero, Ariane Pochon, Pierre Roger, Anton Schumann, David Schussegger, Silvia Steidinger, Jonas Singer Director: Simon Helbling und Luca Faes Written by: Simon Helbling Director of Photography: Daryl Hefti Production Manager: Oliver Schmuki Camera Operator: Louis Golay Camera Assitant: Andi Meyer Stedicam Operator: Lukas Franz Gaffer: Michael Grob Set Design: Nina Staub Editors: Thomas Hofstetter, Luca Faes, Louis Golay, Simon Helbling Set Design Assistant: Odine Corallo Set Photography: Daniel Schär Post Production: Laura Poisson Boom Operator: Timon Furrer Production Sound Mixer: Victor Fernandez Music: Victor Fernandez Assistant Production Manager: Robin Niehoff Make-Up Artist: Letizia Abbatiello Assistant Production Manager: Matthias Hartmann Shot in Zurich, Post Production in Zurich und Berlin
