NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering, Mattenstrasse 22, Basel (2026)

14/08/2026

Locarno Film Festival, Logbook #9
Thu, 12.08.2026

Today was my last full day in Locarno. I wanted to do everything that felt special to me about this trip for one last time.

The day started with breakfast, which is a ritual I think I will miss quite a bit and not just for the food. Breakfast was always slow and relaxed, and gave me a chance to talk to other BaseCampers as well as our own little Science Ambassador team about films, politics, and life. Not the usual range for breakfast conversation but perhaps that's what made it special.

Thanks to Yusuf's spirited organising, we managed to get a spot to screen our short video "How to make...life?" in the BaseCamp Castello Visconteo. However, this was later in the evening and there was one last thing I desperately wanted to tick off my list before I left Locarno - to swim in the cool and clear waters of the river. Though I had been to the river a few times already, I never fully entered it as I still had a lingering cold and cough. On my last day I decided to throw caution to the wind and deal with the consequences on my train home and over the weekend. Jan and I made our way to the river and I immediately plunged in. It was absolutely just what I needed, and I floated on my back staring into the sky (and the ever present sun). To be able to sit in a river like that and look out at tall mountains is not something I experience regularly and that feeling will stay with me for a long time.

After taking a lovely nap in the sun-dappled shade, we made our way back to Locarno to prepare for the screening. I was excited, but was also not sure how many people would show up since there are too many things going on at the same time. Jan and I brought some snacks and drinks and we set up in the BaseCamp library and waited. A few people trickled in, and we started the video. I must admit that more people showed up than I expected and I was happy that we could show our video after working on it for the past few months.

Tired, but happy, we decided to have one last dinner together, us Science Ambassadors. We also had a new honorary member join us - Ana Maria's sister, Alexandra. We decided to go to the Rotonda, and while the food was fantastic it was like being trapped in a "bowl of heat" (credit to Alexandra) so we left soon after eating at my urging.

We then made our way to Piazza Grande, one last time for me. This is something else I will definitely miss. I had never been to open air cinemas before and doing it night after night was quite a reassuring ritual. We watched "Il Cileno" (The Chilean), a film set in the 1970s. Escaping Pinochet's fascist government, two Chilean friends immigrate to Italy for work and stability. One of them is a miner and he gets involved with a left wing extremist group in Italy, becoming their explosives expert. The movie was technically sound, the music was quite interesting, but I found it emotionally underwhelming. In fact, seeing the lead actor overwhelmed and teary eyed before the movie was screened was more emotionally impactful.

In these 10 days, I have seen three film professionals, with varying degrees of fame, tear up on the Piazza Grande stage because of how overwhelming it is to walk up and look at a sea of regular people applauding for you. This feels particularly special about Locarno - how accessible it is to the public, and how integrated it is into daily life in the city. I wonder what Locarno looks like without the film festival.

As is our usual ritual, we walked back to our rooms along the lake. The night was warm, the conversation was easy, and there was a sense of comfort amongst us that felt special.

As I grow older, I find myself participating less in such intense experiences where you're thrown together with a bunch of strangers (or acquaintances) and made to work together over many days. When I was a child, summer camps and school trips were a regular appearance and always resulted in an unusually intense bond that may or may not last after the trip ends. It was interesting to participate in something similar as an adult, and I hope these friendships do last. I will miss Ana Maria's contemplative yet concise commentary, Jan's earnest excitement, and Yusuf's boundless energy.

Until the next time we meet :) Goodbye Locarno.

- Nithila -

13/08/2026

Death has no Master - with

13/08/2026

Ambassadors present their work in

13/08/2026

Locarno Film Festival, Logbook #8
Wed, 11.08.2026
A Day Above, a Night Below

I woke up on day eight with the vague feeling that I had already lived several days before breakfast. The festival has reached that strange stage where time works differently: mornings feel like another week, screenings last three hours but somehow end immediately, and I have started measuring my life in films rather than days.

Today brought a new experience for me: recording a podcast interview with my fellow ambassadors about our experience at the festival. I had never recorded a podcast before, so suddenly talking about something that we have mostly been experiencing instinctively felt surprisingly different. It is one thing to live through the festival; it is another to stop, put a microphone in front of you, and try to explain what exactly has been happening to you. And perhaps that is one of the strangest parts of Locarno: there is always another version of the experience waiting to be discovered. You watch a film, you talk about it, you hear someone else’s reaction, and then suddenly you are asked to put all of that into words.

Luckily, there was also an excellent solution to the problem of too many words and too much heat: go up a mountain. We finally had the opportunity to take the funicular from Locarno to Orselina and then continue by cable car towards Cardada and Cimetta. After days of walking around under what increasingly felt like a personal attack from the sun, getting higher and higher until the air became cooler was almost therapeutic. And then there was the view, from above, Locarno suddenly looked much smaller and much calmer.

Of course, the festival did not let us escape for too long. Some of us decided to see Mu-Ki-Ra, a Locarno Kids screening. Not exactly the kind of film one traditionally imagines when thinking about a Film Festival, but perhaps that is precisely why I wanted to see it. It was colourful, imaginative and, underneath all the monsters and jungle adventures, surprisingly dark. The story follows Cleo, whose brother is kidnapped by Mu-Ki-Ra, forcing her into a jungle populated by strange creatures. But beneath the fantasy is a much more serious idea- how hatred can transform people into monsters, until they begin attacking the very people they once loved, slowly becoming something almost wooden, stripped of their humanity: a children’s film, apparently.

A very cheerful children’s film about the horrifying consequences of hatred. And then came the strange coincidence, because that same evening, in Piazza Grande, we watched Down the Arm of God. I could not have expected the two films to speak to each other so directly. Here again was the idea of hatred transforming people into monsters, but this time without colourful creatures or a jungle: the monsters were human, and therefore considerably more frightening.

What stayed with me was the film’s exploration of radicalization, and especially what happens when we stop recognizing the humanity of the people on the other side. It becomes very easy to divide the world into us and them, good and bad, right and wrong. Once that division is established, nuance becomes suspicious. And perhaps even more dangerous is when a group becomes so convinced that it represents the good side that criticism from within becomes almost as threatening as criticism from outside. You are expected to agree, then to agree more strongly, then to stop questioning. And strangely enough, something that is supposed to create solidarity can end up producing the opposite: isolation.

So there I was, only hours after watching a children’s film about monsters created by hatred, sitting in Piazza Grande watching a much more unsettling version of the same idea.

Two completely different films, two completely different audiences, one surprisingly similar question:
What happens to us when we stop seeing each other as human?

- Ana Maria Ganev -

12/08/2026

Locarno Film Festival, Logbook #7
Tue, 10.08.2026
Do not mistake silence for peace

The day starts with the usual breakfast, it's been many days now and yet I manage to meet new people at breakfast. I think my inane chaos which makes me arrive for breakfast at different times each day is a good fuel to meet new people. This morning, the coffee felt warmer than usual, and so did the discussions about which movies to look out for and which to avoid.

Later in the morning, I went for a feature length "fiction inspired by surreal events" called Guerrilha no Asfalto. A film which is difficult to describe, but easy to enjoy. The story of Guerilla filmmaking and revolting against the system, paralleled by the Portugese revolt against fascism. Unlike the previous night's featured director, who uttered an out of context "F**k AI", this director doesn't shy away from using AI for filmmaking, and in the process beautifully criticizing it too. Show, don't tell.

In the afternoon, I went for a series of short films, which has become a daily ritual for me at the festival. Short films are difficult, and when done well, stay with me forever. This batch of short films, unfortunately, did not make the cut for me. I felt dejected, and somewhat disappointed, an emotional response triggered by the films, not necessarily intentional.

The evening presented me with Thính Giác (Eng. translation: Hearing), a visual masterpiece unravelling the contrast of silence in love and silent love. The characters often mistake silence for peace, and a complete cease of conflict as a necessity to keep relationships cordial. Things that should have been said, remain unsaid. Arguments that bother, but keep you together in love, are corrected with silence. Love, regret, longing, and anguish are not spoken, but we are waiting for the Hearing.

At night, we were invited for a Locarno Party di Domani. We danced, and cheered, to the good times at the Locarno Film Festival. We walked back together, with the Science Ambassadors, close to the lake, and the night was silent but also peaceful.

- Yusuf -

09/08/2026

Art of Molecule Science Ambassadors
to the Locarno Film Festival
Daily Report #2
8th August 2026, Saturday

“Guest Stars” (Stelle Ospiti)
Four days in, and films have started to accumulate in me the way water accumulates in a boat: slowly, then all at once, and suddenly you're sitting in it.
So Day 4 arrives with a sold-out screening in Piazza Grande of the film The Invite, directed by and starring Olivia Wilde. Needless to say it was worth it: the film was delicious (there is no more sophisticated way of putting it).
But what I enjoyed almost as much as the film itself was the audience. Watching a movie surrounded by other people means you are never really watching it alone: you hear laughter before you have decided whether something is funny, you hear a gasp, a murmur, silence, someone reacting particularly strongly to a moment you barely noticed.
Sometimes the reactions touch me, sometimes they surprise me, sometimes, honestly, they bother or even irritate me. And I like that.
It reminds me that cinema is not a private experience, even when the story becomes intensely personal. A film can be projected onto the same screen for hundreds of people and somehow create hundreds of different films inside their heads. The screen is identical for everyone, but the emotional subtitles are not. I find myself watching the audience almost as much as I watch the screen: not because I am distracted, but because their reactions become another layer of the film.
Somewhere in these days I’ve also had the chance to see The Grave of the Fireflies, which very efficiently reminded me that I apparently did not have enough reasons to cry this week. The film’s image of us as fireflies: shining brightly but briefly before disappearing, it stayed with me. Especially because, coincidentally, BaseCamp had a project on the second day called Stelle Ospiti (Guest Stars), based on almost the same thought: that we are stars who shine for a limited time, guests here at the festival but also on earth for a while, and then disappear.
So far, the festival has apparently decided that my entertainment should come with an existential aftertaste.
Dinner, however, provided a different kind of drama. Our group bonding almost collapsed on the fourth day over the most innocent question imaginable: “What’s the dish you cook best?”
It sounded harmless. It was not.
One recipe led to another, then to explanations of how things should really be prepared, and suddenly we were discovering that food is apparently a diplomatic minefield. What began as an exchange of recipes turned into a small international crisis in which cultures were accidentally offended somewhere between the ingredients and the cooking instructions.
Either way, four days in, I am discovering that the festival is not only about the films. It is about the reactions, the conversations, the misunderstandings, the people you meet, the things that make you laugh, and the things that unexpectedly make you cry.
Cinema happens on the screen, but the festival happens everywhere else.

Ana Maria Ganev

09/08/2026

Art of Molecule Science Ambassadors
to the Locarno Film Festival
Daily Report #2
7th August 2026, Friday

Day 3 - Art is politics, Politics is art

The day begins as usual with a communal breakfast, where we make the acquaintance of young filmmakers and artists. Over a cup of warm coffee, we ask each other what we do and where we're from. A question which is never asked, "Where do we belong?"

Even though, as scientists, we are aliens in this crowd of filmmakers, the distance is never felt. Ironically, the one thing that tears through all our differences is politics. Through discussions about Tear Gas, a Georgian film set to premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, we were introduced to a young Georgian documentary filmmaker who's part of the BaseCamp.

Afterwards, as Locarno offered us a cooling rainy shower after days of intense heat, we headed for our first Art of Molecule, meet-up at a quaint restaurant near the Piazza Grande. We discussed our experiences until now, and what plans we have ahead for the rest of the festival.

Next, I decided to walk around the Piazza Grande and feel the emotion of the city as it welcomes filmmakers and film enthusiasts from around the world. I found it very interesting that the signature leopard print of the Locarno Film Festival can be found on buses and cars, and most interestingly, on a bicycle. Maybe the bicycle is also a brilliant marketing tactic, but I choose to believe that it's the spirit of the festival that inspired someone in Locarno to paint their bike.

In the evening, we gathered back at the Castello Visconteo for some fresh pizzas and drinks, as we mingled with the Junta of the BaseCamp. Interestingly, AI was in the air and minds of many BaseCamp-ers, specifically the dark side of it. There was a glimmer of hope, though, that, as any tool, artists and filmmakers might also find a way to benefit from it more than it harms the art.

I headed next to the Piazza Grande to catch the premiere of Ich ist ein Anderer, a German movie about Felix Kersten and "his" truth. As the director beautifully put it, "Now more than ever, truth has become subjective" which makes this seemingly period movie actually a contemporary piece of work.

After a full day of cinema, art, and politics, the BaseCamp-ers gathered at the Mono Bar, where conversations flowed more than the beer from the server's tap.

I am now going back as I write this, secretly hoping that the night doesn't end.

Yusuf Qutbuddin

08/08/2026

Locarno Film Festival
Daily Report #3
Fri, 7 August 2026

Art is politics, Politics is art

The day begins as usual with a communal breakfast, where we make the acquaintance of young filmmakers and artists. Over a cup of warm coffee, we ask each other what we do and where we're from. A question which is never asked, "Where do we belong?"

Even though, as scientists, we are aliens in this crowd of filmmakers, the distance is never felt. Ironically, the one thing that tears through all our differences is politics. Through discussions about Tear Gas, a Georgian film set to premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, we were introduced to a young Georgian documentary filmmaker who's part of the BaseCamp.

Afterwards, as Locarno offered us a cooling rainy shower after days of intense heat, we headed for our first Art of Molecule, meet-up at a quaint restaurant near the Piazza Grande. We discussed our experiences until now, and what plans we have ahead for the rest of the festival.

Next, I decided to walk around the Piazza Grande and feel the emotion of the city as it welcomes filmmakers and film enthusiasts from around the world. I found it very interesting that the signature leopard print of the Locarno Film Festival can be found on buses and cars, and most interestingly, on a bicycle. Maybe the bicycle is also a brilliant marketing tactic, but I choose to believe that it's the spirit of the festival that inspired someone in Locarno to paint their bike.

In the evening, we gathered back at the Castello Visconteo for some fresh pizzas and drinks, as we mingled with the Junta of the BaseCamp. Interestingly, AI was in the air and minds of many BaseCamp-ers, specifically the dark side of it. There was a glimmer of hope, though, that, as any tool, artists and filmmakers might also find a way to benefit from it more than it harms the art.

I headed next to the Piazza Grande to catch the premiere of Ich ist ein Anderer, a German movie about Felix Kersten and "his" truth. As the director beautifully put it, "Now more than ever, truth has become subjective" which makes this seemingly period movie actually a contemporary piece of work.

After a full day of cinema, art, and politics, the BaseCamp-ers gathered at the Mono Bar, where conversations flowed more than the beer from the server's tap.

I am now going back as I write this, secretly hoping that the night doesn't end.

Yusuf Qutbuddin

07/08/2026

Art of Molecule Science Ambassadors
to the Locarno Film Festival
Daily Report #2
6th August 2026, Thursday

Day 2 - where Chaos finds its rythm

Locarno welcomed us with a tropical first night. Even after sunset, the heat refused to let go, and there was no breeze in sight. At breakfast, we found ourselves surrounded by young filmmakers, actors, and artists from all over the world. We had some interesting conversations about fine art and filmmaking.

At 11 a.m., we headed to the opening ceremony of BaseCamp, which this year has found a spectacular home inside the Castello Visconteo. The 13th century castle, is one of Locarno's oldest landmarks, with centuries of history in its walls. For the next ten days, those ancient stones will serve a very different purpose, becoming a space where creativity spills into every room and corridor. Stefano Knuchel, the founder of BaseCamp, summed it up perfectly: "If you can describe what BaseCamp is, we have failed and should stop with it." It took us less than a few hours to understand exactly what he meant. BaseCamp feels less like an event and more like a living experiment: spontaneous, energetic, and impossible to describe. The first workshop was of artistic nature: one could create prints by rubbing leaves against paper pressed onto the castle walls, turning centuries-old textures into self-made artworks.

By the afternoon, the heat had become impossible to ignore. A short bus ride later, we found ourselves cooling off in one of the crystal-clear rivers surrounding Locarno. The cold mountain water was the perfect contrast to the summer heat and gave us just enough energy for the evening ahead.

In the evening, BaseCamp hosted its welcome party with food, drinks, and "performances." The first "performance" completely redefined the word. A group of musicians changed between seemingly aimless improvisation and moments of harmony. In between, audience members stepped forward to read passages from Italian books into a microphone: whispering or screaming their words into the music. It was chaotic, unpredictable, but very alive. In many ways, it felt like the perfect expression of BaseCamp itself.

We ended the day in one of Locarnos cinemas with a screening of a classic 1960s movie. Day two reminded us that science and art have something essential in common: both begin with curiosity, and often leave us with more questions than answers.

- Jan -

07/08/2026

Meet our 2026 Art of Molecule Science Ambassadors at the Locarno Film Festival

-
- @26.jan.06
- Yusuf
- Ana Maria

together with
- Ralf Stutzki

BaseCamp opening day

NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering

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