In July 2015, POV asked Neuland filmmaker Anna Thommen what's happened since the cameras stopped rolling.
Can you provide an update on where some of the students in the film are now?
Ehsanullah is doing a culinary apprenticeship in an excellent hotel and restaurant in Basel. He is very happy there. Nazlije finished working as a geriatric caregiver this summer with a diploma, and will continue working at that same place until she knows what her next step will be. I think she still plans on becoming a teacher one day. Ismail is finishing a sanitary worker apprenticeship. And as for Hamidullah, I mostly hear about him from Ehsanullah, because the two are living in an apartment together. I believe he currently has a job as an unskilled worker in a bakery.
Has being followed in Neuland changed anything for Mr. Zingg or for the school? If so, what has changed?
Mr. Zingg is a very popular man now in Switzerland. Often strange people approach him on the streets, to talk with him and learn more about his work. A lot of people also write to him to thank him for all he's done. But Mr. Zingg is very down-to-earth. When he gets interviewed or invited to give talks, the most important thing to him is keeping the focus on the students. He talks about this pupils, about the school, and about what he has learned in his 25 year of working in integration education.
The school also has become more popular. Some students now have more opportunities to get apprenticeships from companies with employers that have seen the movie.
In your filmmaker interview, you told POV that as immigration into Switzerland has increased, the number of classes in the school featured in the film have nearly doubled. Has the school continued to expand? Are more programs like that one popping up elsewhere in Switzerland/Europe?
I don't know to what extent the film has encouraged new programs here in Switzerland. I do know that in Munich, Germany, they're trying to build a school with a program modeled after the one in the movie, and they've even brought on Mr. Zingg as a consultant!
How do you hope this film will change the way people think about immigration and the availability of support and resources for immigrants both in Europe and in the United States?
The most important thing that I want people to know after watching the movie is that most people who are coming into our country come here because there is no chance to have a good life in their own country. Most of them are willing to work hard and are trying to live an honest life. That's what I've experienced a lot of the time in my interactions with immigrants. But presently, when they arrive in Switzerland they have to wait a long time under bad circumstances and without permission to work. I'm sure Switzerland would profit from welcoming these strong people, and they certainly would benefit as well, but at the moment, the political goal of many powerful people is to simply send them away as soon as possible. For that goal, they put immigrants under as much pressure as they can, so they will maybe choose to leave the country on their own.
This thinking is so disrespectful, and it allows immigrants to be treated like second class citizens. I think this is likely the way the issue is approached in all of Europe, and probably also the United States. But fortunately, there are counter-forces. I hope to see a shift towards giving these people back their dignity, much like existing organizations and people like Mr.Zingg have done.
What are you working on next?
All of my work thus far has been documentary projects about people who feel on the outside, who feel like strangers, who don't feel completely free. In some ways, that is also my story. I've decided to do a project where I'm not looking into other people's lives, but instead am drawing on my own experiences. I plan to write a fiction piece about my and my family's experiences in a little village in Switzerland. I'm writing the screenplay now. I would like to address the idea of not feeling at home; you don't have to be an immigrant to not feel home in your own country.