Edgar Hagen Filmmaker
Cinematic exploring in the heart of storm
The film as a socio-political forum is the central challenge for Swiss documentary filmmaker, author and producer Edgar Hagen: «At its best, film is part of a social process. My films are then successful when they are controversial and have the power to set developments in motion. I am prepared to go far and engage in these debates for that.»
Hagen is known for his cinematic explorations of profound philosophical, psychological, and socio-political themes. At the crossings between the individual and society, he embarks on cinematic voyages leading into the heart of the human soul. In his latest film, The Roots of Madness (2026), he joins legendary TV reporter Ulrich Tilgner on a journey through Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Niger to examine and to understand the causes of flight and displacement driven by Western policies, and asks how today’s refugee crisis has fueled rising extremism.
Another global quest is his internationally acclaimed film Journey to the Safest Place on Earth (2013) – a futile and at the same time absurd search for final repositories for deadly nuclear waste. Hagen’s journey takes him from Switzerland to the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, China, Japan, the United States, and Australia. Based on a critical socio-political issue, he develops a road movie exploring societal abysses: he meets geologists and nuclear lobbyists, environmental activists and tribal leaders, nomadic families and local politicians, and through these encounters, he examines how scientific objectivity and democratic processes come under pressure from the practical constraints and justification strategies of the nuclear lobby. In search of answers, the film crosses deep layers of collective repression and areas which are «taboo zones».
As early as in Someone Beside You (2007), Hagen takes the audience on an unconventional cinematic journey, exploring new approaches to psychiatry – beyond conventional medicine. Together with several psychiatrists and their patients, he embarks on a documentary road movie through Switzerland, Europe, and the United States. Traveling in RVs, they explore the depths of the psyche and examine existential questions: What is the human mind? How does it behave in extreme psychotic situations? Where does the line between normality and madness lie? Are psychoses curable?
His latest film, Who Are We? (2019), has also won several awards and explores the question of how inclusion and communication with people with severe disabilities can work. What can we learn from them? Who are we?
Hagen’s commitment to understanding social upheavals is also evident in his documentary Zeit der Titanen (2001). In this documentary about the construction of the Grande Dixence dam, he shows how thousands of workers lived on the slopes of the high mountains under the most difficult conditions to build what was then the world’s tallest dam. The film accompanies them as they navigate life’s crises in a primeval landscape of rock and ice, escaping poverty, finding friendships, and also facing loneliness, illness, and death.
As early as his first feature film, Markus Jura Suisse – The Prodigal Son (1996), Hagen depicts a state of emergency through the portrait of a radical dropout. At the time of filming, the protagonist had been wandering through Switzerland for 20 years, refusing to conform to society’s expectations. On his journey through Switzerland and France, he leaves his personal signature with a felt-tip pen and, in dialogue with the filmmaker, struggles with fundamental questions about the true values of life.