Nemesis

This unique film chronicles the destruction of an abandoned train station in Zurich and the construction of a new prison and police centre in its place. Shot exclusively from the perspective of director Thomas Imbach’s window, and accompanied by a voiceover from him – which includes his own personal narrative along with heartbreaking testimony from prisoners awaiting deportation – the film explores how we deal with the erasure of history and, in this case, replace it with state security. Rendered in remarkable detail, Imbach’s film documents the agonising death of the freight station, the years of standstill on site and the creation of the new concrete colossus with the site’s progress becoming, in a sense, the director’s personal chronicle. Shot on 35mm, often through telephoto lenses, Nemesis is an hypnotically beautiful piece of cinema, infused with a reluctant poetry.