Documentary magazine is pleased to debut the official trailer for Elephants & Squirrels, the debut feature documentary by Swiss filmmaker Gregor Brändli. The film will world premiere in the International Competition of DOK Leipzig next week, before screening in IDFA’s Best of Fest strand in November. Prague-based sales agent Filmotor has recently acquired the pic’s world rights.
Elephants & Squirrels follows Sri Lankan artist Deneth Piumakshi Veda Arachchige and Uruwarige Wannilaththo, the chief of the indigenous Wanniyala-Aetto people, as they demand the return of human remains and cultural artifacts held in Swiss museums. Their journey exposes Switzerland’s entanglement in the colonial system and challenges long-standing narratives of innocence and neutrality.
While researching in Basel’s museums, Veda Arachchige discovers a disturbing collection brought to Europe at the beginning of the 20th century by naturalists Paul and Fritz Sarasin, whose expeditions combined scientific curiosity with colonial violence. Decades after Sri Lanka’s first repatriation request was denied, the film witnesses renewed efforts to bring ancestral remains and objects home—raising urgent questions about power, historical accountability, and the ethics of museum collections.
Shot between Switzerland and Sri Lanka, Elephants & Squirrels unfolds as a collaborative investigation, weaving contemporary dialogues with archival traces and visual motifs inspired by M.C. Escher’s art. “The film asks questions rather than offering answers,” Brändli notes. “Colonial history can’t be told from one side alone.”
“I grew up hearing that Switzerland had no colonies,” says Brändli. “But my Brazilian family history already made me doubt that narrative. This film is an attempt to face our shared past honestly and to explore what historical responsibility truly means.”
The project was inspired by historian Bernhard C. Schär’s book Tropenliebe, which traces Basel’s colonial connections through the Sarasins’ travels. “When I met Deneth in 2020,” Brändli recalls, “she told me how she’d been handed human remains from her homeland. That moment—and the call from the Wanniyala-Aetto chief asking for their return—made it clear we had to tell this story together.”
“Elephants & Squirrels is a visually striking, character-driven film about the global fight to return stolen objects and human remains, exposing how colonial and ethical debts endure in the institutions of the Global North,” adds Michaela Cajkova, of Filmotor. “We target festivals, broadcasters, and streamers, with a TV cut ready by late November. Next, we’ll reach the educational market—universities, libraries, non-profits, and museums—as the film offers a vital contemporary case study for post-colonial and museum studies.”
Produced by soap factory GmbH in co-production with SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, the film received support from SUISSIMAGE Cultural Fund, the Federal Office of Culture (FOC), Fachausschuss Film und Medienkunst Basel & Basel-Landschaft, and the Ernst Göhner Foundation. Royal Film GmbH is handling Swiss distribution.
