The Circle

Zurich, 1958. Ernst Ostertag is a young schoolteacher who has to keep his life in two halves in order to keep his job. He goes to one of the balls thrown by the magazine Der Kreis and sees Röbi Rapp on stage, a drag performer. The two begin a life together. In those years the magazine was the most visible piece of gay organisation in Europe; then a murder happens in the city, and police pressure comes down on the magazine and on everyone around it. Stefan Haupt directs the Swiss film; a hundred and two minutes. It is half reconstruction and half documentary: actors play the period, and in between the real Ostertag and Rapp speak. In 2007 the two became the first registered same-sex couple in Switzerland. The film took a Teddy at the 2014 Berlinale.