While the Green Grass Grows

Only through his camera is Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Peter Mettler (The End of Time, Becoming Animal) able to relate to the world, study himself and the people around him, and share his insights. This also applies to his relationship with the phenomenon of time and the finite nature of our existence on earth. He is confronted by this when his mother dies and he knows that his 90-year-old father, despite his cheerful zest for life, inevitably will follow. During Mettler’s cinematographic exploration of the meaning of life and what comes before and after, the COVID pandemic breaks out, which puts everything even more sharply into perspective.

While the Green Grass Grows consists of parts 1 and 6 of a seven-part filmic diary that unfolds unhurriedly and meditatively. Mettler asks his parents and friends his existential questions. At the same time, he focuses on nature: the Swiss Alps, where his parents come from, and the forests of his own native country, Canada. Everything flows, reproduces and continues—with great beauty, and without revealing any meaning.