Synopsis +
Credits

Synopsis

In 1977, a man born into Zurich’s upper bourgeoisie began drawing at night on the bleak concrete walls of the city, for which he was regularly criminally charged. His actions were his revolt against the sterile, narrow-minded and affluent city, against pollution, chemical companies, cruise liners and intensive livestock farming. In 1979 they caught him. The man’s name: Harald Oskar Naegeli, 39 years old. In 1982 he fled to Düsseldorf and sought asylum. Here he won the support of artists and politicians such as Joseph Beuys and Willy Brandt. In 1984 he handed himself over to the Swiss authorities. The outcome: a trial, four months in the maximum security unit in Winterthur, two months open prison, fines. From then on, he lived and worked between Zurich and Düsseldorf. In 2019 he moved back permanently to Zurich, but not without first being taken to court in Düsseldorf. On the walls of Düsseldorf he left behind flamingos and the sprayed lines of his utopia. A dream cherished for many decades was about to come true: a danse macabre sprayed inside the twin towers of the Grossmünster in Zurich. But the city’s building department intervened and quarrelled with him over a couple of centimetres. The work remained unfinished. Corona’s dance of death began to spread across the globe. Naegeli, by now already 82 years old, returned to the streets. His personal struggle was with cancer. The dance of death is also his own, and that of politics. In 2020 the city of Zurich honoured his life’s work with the »Grosser Kunstpreis«, while the city canton took him to court. As the forefather of graffiti art, Naegeli continues to polarise to the present day. His works are abstract, utopian and free. As too is Naegeli himself. He’ll take leave of this world in due course. Not pale away like his works but actively sign off. The film traces the development of a complex, humorous human being whose creative work reaches far beyond Street Art. His artistic approach and his political and philosophical views are acutely topical and highly stimulating. The film is Naegeli’s testament and an homage to the utopian.

Credits

WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY #NATHALIE DAVID IDEA #PETER SPOERRI ENGLISH VOICE-OVER #ANNA KATHARINA MÜLLER FRENCH VOICE-OVER #MERLE PALOMBE GERMAN VOICE-OVER #ANDRINA BOLLINGER NARRATOR’S VOICE #STEFAN KURT ORIGINAL SCORE #ANDRINA BOLLINGER DIE BALLADE VON SPRAYER #SOPHIE HUNGER CINEMATOGRAPHY #ADRIAN STÄHLI #NATHALIE DAVID RESEARCH SHOOT ZURICH #JENS WOERNLE DÜSSELDORF #STEFFEN BOHN ADDITIONAL SOUND RECORDING #SEBASTIAN STAHL SOUND RECORDING ZURICH #JEAN-PIERRE GERTH #JULIAN JOSEPH #KURT HUMAN SOUND DESIGN & SOUND MIX #JULIAN JOSEPH #KURT HUMAN ANIMATION & TITLE DESIGN #MIEKE ULFIG EDITOR #NATHALIE DAVID SUPERVISING EDITOR #ANDREW BIRD COLOUR GRADER #PATRICK LINDENMAIER PRODUCTION MANAGER #KIRSTEN HERFEL PRODUCERS #PETER SPOERRI #NATHALIE DAVID POST-PRODUCTION #ANDROMEDA FILM AG #DAVIDE LEGITTIMO #PEDRO NUÑEZ COORDINATION #GUILLERMO J. DEISLER GRAPHIC DESIGN ASSISTANT #LUCIE BELLE BLANCHE DAVID EDITING ASSISTANT #JUSTUS BERGEN TRANSLATION & SUBTITLES #SUBS HAMBURG #ANDREW BIRD TRANSCRIPTION #AISHA MIA LETHEN BIRD WEBSEITE DESIGNER #ARMIN FRISCHKNECHT WEBSITE TRANSLATION #MATTHEW PARTRIDGE

FUNDED BY BUNDESAMT FÜR KULTUR SEKTION FILM, ZÜRCHER FILMSTIFTUNG, MOIN FILMFÖRDERUNG HAMBURG SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, MIGROS-KULTURPROZENT, ERNST GÖHNER STIFTUNG, ALEXIS VICTOR THALBERG STIFTUNG & VOLKART STIFTUNG COPRODUCED BY SCHWEIZER FERNSEHEN SRF, 3SAT SRG AND SUCCÈS PASSAGE ANTENNE.

with kind support from

#HARALD NAEGELI #WOLFGANG SPILLER #SCHAUSPIELHAUS ZÜRICH #RUDOLF MÜLLER & SELINDE BÖHM #HEINE HAUS, DÜSSELDORF #ARNO TROXLER & NIKLAUS TROXLER, JAZZ FESTIVAL WILLISAU #KUNSTHAUS ZÜRICH

with:

The Zurich Sprayer a.k.a. Harry Cloud,
Christoph Sigrist Church Minister, Zurich Grossmünster
Markus Kägi Councillor, Canton of Zurich, 2007-2019
Mirjam Varadinis Curator for Contemporary Art, Zurich Kunsthaus
Benjamin von Blomberg Theatre co-director, Zurich Schauspielhaus
Susanne Stamm, Parish Commission 7 & 8 Ref. Church Parish, City of Zurich
Christoph Doswald Curator & ex-Chairman of Art in Public Spaces Working Committee, City of Zurich
Regine Helbling Art Historian & Managing Director of Visarte Switzerland – Professional Association for Visual Arts
Hans Martin Ulbrich, oboist, longstanding friend of Harald Naegeli’s
Corine Mauch, Mayor of Zurich

Thanks to all of you !

MERCI BEAUCOUP MONSIEUR NAEGELI

Poster

downloadable as PDF