Between 1931 to 2002, Switzerland issued some six million seasonal residence permits, known as "A" permits, to immigrant workers. This status carried drastic rules, such as a ban on family reunification and a stay in Switzerland limited to nine months a year. In open letters, former seasonal workers and their children recount the impact this system had on their lives.
The film reveals the diversity, sound and melody of Romansh, one of Switzerland's four official national languages. In the age of globalization, Romansh, which is only spoken by a small minority, seems to be threatened with extinction. For the protagonists of this poem of images and sounds, however, the language is a symbol of their belonging, their identity and their resistance.
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Lucien, a 28-year-old cabaret musician, suffers from pathological shyness. Tonight, instead of doing his standard pianist's routine, he wants to get up on the stage and sing his lyrics for the first time in front of an audience. Waiting in the wings, he calms his stage fright with alcohol and cigarettes. He wants to make it through this hell, which will also be his liberation.
