Niederurnen, GL

The parable of asbestos, from innovative and industrial promise to environmental and health scourge, is one of the most tragic symbols of the consequences of progress and profit at any cost. Eternit had its Swiss headquarters in Niederurnen, in the canton of Glarus, where dozens of workers migrated from southern Italy to mine and process the material, whose dust spread from the factories over the entire community. From the modest façades of their mountain homes to the furnished interiors reflecting the quiet aspirations of a working class discovering prosperity in a foreign country; from the unveiling of the faces of the workers left behind to tell their stories, and the glimpses of the Italian villages where they returned to die—the film proceeds with discretion and method, and with the firmness of those who demand justice. And then come the long closing credits: a merciless summary of the evidence and the negligence that marked a century of asbestos production in Switzerland, the violation of its workers’ rights, and its enduring failure to acknowledge the extent of the harm inflicted.

Sergio Fant

Niederurnen, GL, 2025