New technologies are transforming a 19th-century watchmaking town in Switzerland. Josephine, a young factory worker, produces the unrest wheel, swinging in the heart of the mechanical watch. Exposed to new ways of organizing money, time and labor, she gets involved with the local anarchist movement.
Based on Pyotr Kropotkin's "Memoirs of a Revolutionist," Cyril Schäublin's "Unrueh" is fascinating and surprisingly easy to watch despite its deliberate pacing. The film's stylism is exceptional, successfully recreating the atmosphere of 1870s Swiss watchmaking culture with meticulous attention to detail. The acting is solid, and there's a running irony in the constant adjustment of the factory clock—a perfect metaphor for workers trying to reclaim control over their own time from industrial capitalism.
The film's precision pacing mirrors the mechanical world it depicts, and the historical look is impeccable. Schäublin understands the visual language of the period and uses it effectively.
However, two significant faults undermine the film's success. First, it's never quite clear that some watchmakers are part of the commune-anarchist collective. The factory workers' affiliations are evident, but the watchmakers remain opaque, creating confusion about who stands where politically. Second, and more damaging, the film simply stops in the middle. "Unrueh" is supposedly about Kropotkin's conversion to anarchism, yet his character development and arc are completely missing. We're left with a beautiful mechanism that never quite completes its revolution.
A film about precision ironically lacks the narrative precision to land its point.
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