Anita Blumer

Residents of a flat share discuss the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner. A genuine film about group dynamics, daily living together and democracy, in which banality, poetry and humour are mixed.

Six sisters live together with their grandmother in a house in Zurich. They are all preoccupied with their own lives. One summer a quiet boarder and the return of the oldest sister disrupt the usual family order, triggering a battle against the rigidity of former roles.

The Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal is one of the most prominent representatives of political intervention theatre in the 20th century. In the 1960s he developed a theatre method which he called the “Theatre of the Oppressed,” which results in a socially liberating experience. His method redefined the relationship between the actors and spectators in that spectators are urged to emancipate and liberate themselves from their passive role. The film illustrates what this means in practice using various theatre groups from all over the world, including Switzerland, as an example.