Investment banker HP has allegedly ridden out the crash of the stock exchange. One evening, at a barbecue event with his banker friends and their wives, HP's Danish au-pair threatens to blow the whistle on her love affair with HP's married boss. HP wants to please everybody. But the next morning, he has lost everything: his house, his wife, his friends, and his job - NACHBEBEN is an intimate play which examines how neo-liberal principals force their way into the most private of spheres, namely those of the family and of friendships. NACHBEBEN is a film about men that have been trained to poker, spy and speculate in an economic world. It is also a film about women that are expected to accept this but in the end decide not to. It is astonishing to note that although banks and large corporations represent the largest employment sector of modern-day Switzerland, NACHBEBEN is the first Swiss film which deals in depth with the people of this socio-economic environment. And although affluence and materialism appear to be ubiquitous in Switzerland, no national film to date has illustrated the human price which these traits ultimately demand.
