Tizian Büchi Blends Reality and Magic in His Portrait of a Neighborhood ‘Like an Island’
Trinidad Barleycorn Picture a suburban neighborhood that mostly immigrant families and pensioners call home, hidden under a wide avenue and wedged on the edge of a forest and a river. Or as Swiss director Tizian Büchi puts it: “A hole where no one ever goes, unless they live there.” This is the setting of his first feature film, “Like an Island,” selected in the international competition at Visions du Réel, in Nyon, Switzerland. Now picture two guards, Daniel and his younger colleague Ammar, patrolling the area night and day to make sure no one goes anywhere near the river.