A Swissair Caravelle caught fire in flight and disintegrated shortly after take-off from Kloten. The date was 4 September 1963. In the wreckage, rescuers found the wallet of a certain Reynold Thiel, a businessman, fashion designer, virtuoso pianist and composer. This man from Neuchâtel was unknown to the general public. The Federal Council, on the other hand, knows him well. Over the years, the political police have compiled a voluminous file on his name that is circulated among the members of the government. Because he is a communist? He denied it in the mid-1930s when the feds took an interest in him. Then the bloodhounds had trouble keeping track of him. They don't know that he fights in Spain in the International Brigades, then in Paris and in the Morvan maquis against the Nazi occupation. When the policemen find him after the war, Thiel has become a businessman and travels to Moscow, Peking, Bucharest... They spy on him relentlessly, until he dies. What are they looking for? What is his secret?

Documentary

86 minutes

Producer: Elisa Garbar

Director: Danielle Jaeggi

Co-authors for the scenario: Alain Campiotti / Danielle Jaeggi

Editor: Sophie Reiter

Sound: Patrick Becker

Original music: Jérôme Vittoz

Additional music: Reynold Thiel

With the participation of: Danielle Jaeggi / Sophie Reiter / Alain Campiotti

Release in French-speaking Switzerland in February 2020, however the health crisis interrupted its release which could be resumed on November 25, 2020 in partnership with 8 cinemas: Delémont (Cinéma La Grange), Fribourg (Cinéma Rex), Geneva/Carouge (Cinéma Bio), Lausanne (Le Zinéma), Neuchâtel (Cinéma Apollo), Oron-la-Ville (Cinéma d'Oron), Sainte-Croix (Cinéma Royal) and Vevey (Cinéma Astor)

Released 2022 : From January 27, discover the film "Thiel the Red - such a discreet agent" in theaters in Swissgerman-speaking Switzerland.

And at-tend special screenings with the director Danielle Jaeggi and the speakers Dr. Peter Huber and Anjuschka Weil:

Thursday, January 27, 2022 at the Kosmos cinema in Zürich at 8:15 pm

Saturday, January 29, 2022 at the cinema Rex in Bern at 11 am

Sunday January 30, 2022 at the kultkino atelier in Basel at 11:30 am

All information here.

Written press & web

Le Courrier (Switzerland - French) : Une cinéaste si discrète

Le Temps (Switzerland - French) : Crypto, an arrest in Berne

Entretien avec Danielle Jaeggi, RTS "12h45", 25.02.20.