Frequently Asked Questions

Frame Film GmbH is a Swiss film production company based in Bern. It was founded in 2012 by director Mano Khalil and develops and produces feature films, documentaries and international co-productions for cinema and television.

Mano Khalil is a Kurdish-Swiss film director, screenwriter and producer. Born in Syrian Kurdistan, he studied law and history in Damascus and fiction film directing in former Czechoslovakia. He has lived and worked in Switzerland since 1996 and founded Frame Film in Bern in 2012.

The best-known titles are the feature film Neighbours (2021), the documentary Hafis & Mara (2018), the feature film The Swallow (2016), the documentary The Beekeeper (2013) and Our Garden of Eden (2010). The full list is on the Films page.

Neighbours (2021, 124 minutes) is Frame Film's most successful film. Mano Khalil's feature tells the story of a Kurdish boy growing up in a Syrian border village in the 1980s. It has won more than 100 awards worldwide, including the Bern Film Prize for Best Feature Film, the Best Script Award of the Red Sea International Film Festival and the European Values Award.

In production are the feature film Moments, which intertwines three lives in Bern, and the documentary Liiiiaaa about Lia Wälti, captain of the Swiss women's national football team. Both are co-productions with Swiss Radio and Television SRF.

Most films are co-produced with Swiss Radio and Television SRF, several also with ARTE, 3sat and the French- and Italian-language Swiss broadcasters RTS and RSI.

The films are shot in the languages of their protagonists, often Kurdish, Arabic and Swiss German. For cinema and festivals they are usually available with German, English and French subtitles.

In his own words: "As a student I spent almost all my money on going to the cinema. In Syria at that time I could of course only see films that had passed the regime's censorship. In film you can make your own wishes, fantasies and dreams come true. That is what I wanted too. And I dreamed of telling the story of my people in films."

Frame Film GmbH, Waisenhausplatz 30, 3011 Bern, Switzerland. For screenings, festivals, licensing, press material or co-productions, e-mail [email protected] or use the contact form.