“Omegäng” goes in search of traces of Swiss dialects
Published: Thursday, Apr 11th 2024, 10:41
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In search of the meaning of the Bernese-German word "Omegäng", director Aldo Gugolz travels through Switzerland. In his film of the same name, he talks to a wide variety of protagonists about dialects and how they deal with them. The result: a documentary that ripples along at a leisurely pace.
Dialect is alive. This much becomes clear during the 76 minutes of director Aldo Gugolz's documentary. Wherever the director and screenwriter ("Rue de Blamage", "Spagehtti, Sex und Videos") looks around - in Alpine German-speaking Switzerland or in urban areas, in agriculture or in artistic circles, from the "Zibele" to the "Böle" region - dialect is cultivated and loved everywhere. Musicians, authors, Idiotikon editors and language teachers work with it, and old expressions are commonplace in agriculture.
That's exactly what Aldo Gugolz is all about: with "Omegäng" he wants to show as many ways of using the local language as possible. That is entertaining. But is it enough to create suspense? Not quite. The documentary, which features the rappers Cachita and Big Zis, the podcaster duo Nadia Zollinger and Markus Gasser and the authors Franz Hohler and Pedro Lenz, is certainly entertaining. But it doesn't get you going. And apart from that, you are left unsatisfied.
Mystery is not solved
It may be that the word "Omegäng" doesn't quite work as a central theme. The mystery surrounding the word is at least not solved in the movie. Which is hardly surprising. After all, if the people of Bern are already puzzling over the word in vain, how are people in other parts of German-speaking Switzerland supposed to solve the riddle? Perhaps, and Aldo Gugolz also addresses this in the press dossier, it is also due to the boundlessness of the whole dialect issue. There are a thousand funny stories that could not be told in a single documentary, countless strands that could be pursued.
Even if it scratches the surface, "Omegäng" at least makes you want to listen more closely after watching the movie. To consciously pick up odd words and incorporate them into your own vocabulary. If you don't want to go quite that far, you can at least say the following in conversations thanks to this film: the fear that circulated 160 years ago that High German would supplant dialect with the "railroad age" was unfounded. "Omegäng" will be shown in cinemas in German-speaking Switzerland from April 18.
*This text by Miriam Margani, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation
©Keystone/SDA
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