Still Working
Julietta Korbel / Switzerland / 2019 / 17 min / Colour
Italian premiere
In the sixties, the Chavalon power plant was an ambitious engineering project, destined to dominate the Vouvry plateau, a mountain village in the Canton of Valais. Decades later, only one turbine is still active, guarded by a worker, now the solitary caretaker. Accompanied by his dappled Great Dane, Pavel protects the memory and the voice of the silent giant: the imposing architecture and time-worn machinery draw the profile of a metaphysical place, traces of life in a now deserted area. When Gabriel, a young engineer in charge of closing the plant for good, arrives at the site, Pavel will see his existence crumble, sinking into memory. In dialogue with archival images documenting the construction of the plant in 1965, Julietta Korbel's short film recounts the protagonist's drama through the walls of a utopia at sunset. The factory, an ancient, now dormant, monster, does not seem to want to abandon Pavel before disappearing.
Julietta Korbel
Julietta Korbel is a director and screenwriter of Swiss and Slovak origins. In 2019 she graduated in film at ECAL (École cantonale d’art de Lausanne). In 2018 she made the short film Mercedes, which was screened in numerous international festivals.
Credits
Subject Julietta KorbelScreenplay Julietta KorbelCinematography Carlos Tapia GonzálesSound Camille BonardEditing Raphaël LefèvreMusic Benjamin BucherMain cast Beat Wittwer, Jean-Baptiste Le VaillantProduction company THERA PRODUCTION