Swissair SR111 crash revisited in new feature film

A feature film about the crash of Swissair Flight SR111 has been made. It is titled "111 - Echoes from Halifax." Producer Anne Walser said the story has a timeless urgency, centred on grief, loss and healing. That is why it was taken up again despite numerous documentaries and a television film on the accident.

The project was in development for eight years, Walser said. The team did not know exactly when it would be finished, but was confident the material stood on its own and did not depend on an anniversary date. A story based on real events needs some distance, she noted. By this point the wounds, while never fully healing, were not too fresh.

Asked why a cinema film was made in addition to earlier documentaries, she said the tragedy affected many people in Switzerland emotionally. A feature film conveys emotion differently, not better or worse.

In preparing the film, the team spoke with relatives, flight crew and residents of Halifax, the city where the aircraft came down. Walser said the pain of the catastrophe is still present for many older people, and that the aim was never to reopen old wounds. The film, which she described as deliberately not a disaster film, traces the tragedy through individual human fates.

Walser gave the interview in connection with the release of "111 - Echoes from Halifax."