08/10/2025 - The Swiss-Kurdish director’s latest drama film, inspired by real events, explores the challenges and hopes of people whose lives intersect in unexpected ways

Director Mano Khalil (left) and actor Jalal Altawil (© SRF/Frame Film)

Swiss-based Kurdish filmmaker Mano Khalil has begun shooting his new feature, Momente, in and around Bern. Inspired by true stories, the ensemble drama explores the challenges and hopes of people whose lives intersect in unexpected ways.

The story centres on Wahid, a Syrian surgeon who has found refuge in Switzerland. He crosses paths with Monika, an asylum officer who is beginning to feel the emotional strain of her work, and Simo, a snack-bar owner whose involvement in shady dealings complicates his life. Amid laughter, hardship and chance encounters, these characters discover moments of courage and new perspectives.

The film brings together a strong cast of Swiss and international actors. Syrian thesp Jalal Altawil (Green Border [+see also:
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film profile], Foreign Language [+see also:
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interview: Claire Burger
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interview: Pia Marais
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interview: Ronny Trocker
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film profile]).

Khalil, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sandra Ehlermann, draws on his own experience as a Kurdish refugee in Switzerland. He explains: “As a refugee in Switzerland, I experienced a new reality, shaped by administrative and social challenges. Yet despite the difficulties, I fought to raise my voice as a filmmaker again. To give up would have meant giving those who drove me away the power to silence me.”

Born in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) in 1964, Khalil studied directing in Czechoslovakia, and worked as an independent filmmaker for Czechoslovak and later Slovak television. In the 1990s, he was briefly imprisoned in Syria after identifying himself publicly as Kurdish. Following his release, he was granted asylum in Switzerland, where he has lived and worked since 1996. He has worked both in television and in cinema, in fiction and documentary films, and is best known for The Swallow [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], Hafis & Mara [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and The Beekeeper, which won Solothurn’s Prix de Soleure. His latest feature was Neighbours [+see also:
film review
film profile].

Momente is being produced by Khalil’s Bern-based Frame Film GmbH in co-production with SRF and SRG SSR. The film is supported by the Canton of Bern through the Bern Film Fund (Office for Culture). The shoot is scheduled to continue until the end of October in Bern. A broadcast date or theatrical release has not yet been set.