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- Published: January 30, 2025 12:23
Unrest OTT Release Date: Cyril Schäublin directs Unrest, a Swiss historical drama. He sets the film in the late 19th century and explores the intersection of anarchist movements and the watchmaking industry in Switzerland.
It premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, where Schäublin won the Best Director award in the Encounters section. Critics praised Unrest for its meditative style, unique historical perspective, and visually striking cinematography, which captures the precise and repetitive nature of watchmaking. Its themes of labor control and political resistance remain relevant today.
Unrest will be premiering on the streaming platform Mubi on the 1st of February 2025.
Plot
The film introduces us to Josephine, a young woman working in a watch factory. The factory is part of a growing industrial system that prioritizes precision, discipline, and profit.
The workers, mostly women, are responsible for assembling minuscule components, often working under strict conditions where every second is accounted for.
We see how the timekeeping system constantly monitors productivity and determines workers’ pay, symbolizing the increasing control of time over human lives.
The factory owners and supervisors use synchronized clocks to measure output, creating a highly regulated environment where workers have little autonomy.
The film takes a turn when Pyotr Kropotkin, a young Russian cartographer and anarchist, arrives in Jura. He arrives there to conduct a land survey. While he maps the terrain, he interacts with the local watchmakers, who also participate in underground anarchist movements.
Kropotkin, a historical figure who later became one of the most influential anarchist theorists. He finds himself drawn to the workers’ struggles. Kropotkin listens to their frustrations about the rigid factory system, low wages, and the control exerted over their lives.
He begins to exchange ideas about anarchism with them. Kropotkin introduces them to concepts of self-governance, collective action, and resistance against the capitalist structures that dominate their world.
Throughout the film, time serves as a metaphor for control. The factory system relies on precise synchronization, treating human labor as just another machine part.