The Elevator Pitch

In the final year of the First World War, a deserter washes up on the shores of a quiet resort town in neutral Switzerland. What initially appears to be an idyllic paradise quickly sours into an inescapable dystopia.

Incident on Lake Geneva takes place over the course of a single day in & around a small luxury Swiss hotel. It is told from the perspective of Boris: a Russian serf, or slave in all but name, forced to fight on the French front, who escaped the deadliest war fought to date by swimming across Lake Geneva, desperate to return to his family. Boris initially thinks he swam his way home, but soon finds himself trapped in another nightmare: a world of blissful ignorance, untouched by war, where nothing seems to have changed. He quickly learns that the world he knew no longer exists, his country’s leader executed and the borders redrawn, and he can’t go back. But in this world, he is seen as a deserter, a foreigner, an outsider who speaks a funny language no one seems to understand. The neutral Swiss don’t know what to do with him, but are hesitant to let him leave, and the hotel becomes a gilded cage.  Where does he go from here?

Why Now?

The film is based on a 1926 short story, so it is natural to ask “why now?” Our take  of Incident on Lake Geneva interprets Zweig’s story through themes that could not be more critical to our world: the toll of war on refugees & families, escape & borders, and our capacity to ignore the horrors in our own backyard.

As the son of immigrants — one of whom came to the U.S. as a political refugee — I’ve explored these themes in my documentary work over the past decade. Family Legend was about Marion Wong’s pioneering first Asian American film from 1917, a groundbreaking story about the beauty of having your heart in two places. In Layqa, in indigenous Ecuadorian artist reimagines the sort of images that greet new arrivals at Newark Airport; and in Westphalia, we imagine a world where citizenship is a stock market commodity that you can buy into and sell.At its best, art has the power to change us. It awakens, provokes, inspires, heals, unites, liberates, transforms. As filmmakers, we are committed to confronting the issues of our time, advocating for change, and raising difficult, nuanced questions.

What will it look & feel like?

Check out the lookbook below, and listen to this curated Spotify playlist to set the tone.

Thematically, we like to think that Incident on Lake Geneva would sit on the same shelf as the following films:

Join the campaign

We are looking to raise $40,000-50,000. Here’s how that breaks down.

What’s in it for me?

Who’s making this?

Risks & Challenges

We’ve decided to utilize a flexible goal in order to make sure that no matter the outcome of this campaign, a movie gets made.  With additional funding, we can elevate the production quality, grow the scale & scope of our tiny but mighty crew, and compensate the key collaborators who are volunteering their time. We’d be honored if you joined us.

Other Ways You Can Help

We understand that a donation might not be possible. Do you have 5 friends who care about any of the issues outlined here? Give them a nudge, or repost on social media.