After graduating from a Swiss dance school, 22-year-old Joyce (or Aisi – her Chinese name) faces a dilemma: should she follow the expectations of her mother Xuexin, a successful TikTok influencer who supports the family financially, or follow her own desire to be a dancer in Europe?
Xuexin, a successful influencer on TikTok with hundreds of thousands of followers, has been filming Joyce her entire life. What once began as a way to document family moments has now become a business model that provides the family’s livelihood – and, in turn, helps finance Joyce’s dreams. Joyce finds herself torn between acknowledging this reality, and asserting control over her own life.
But the family dilemmas at the heart of the film are not solely one-way. As Joyce pulls away and focuses on her career, Xuexin, weighed down by loneliness and the constant demands of her online persona, begins to break down. Joyce comes to see that independence does not mean cutting all ties – and that she must find her place within the fragile balance of family and self…
These are sensitive areas that director Bucher is well able to navigate, Zobrist argues. “Themes around parent-child relationships in mixed-race families raise questions that have always resonated with Benjamin personally, as a Swiss-Korean,” he tells BDE. “His [Bucher’s] strengths lie in a great flexibility, empathy, commitment and perseverance as well as a good feel for strong images. He was often filming alone with Joyce and her family, which allowed him to be close to the protagonists and shoot unobtrusively in their everyday lives. I am convinced that this closeness can be felt in the film.”
Funding for 80-minute film, shot across Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Italy, China, is on the cusp of completion, with €30,000 yet to be raised. The expected completion date is April 2026.
“The project was supported by regional and national funds Switzerland and we were able to get Swiss television as a co-producer,” producer Olivier Zobrist (Langfilm) tells BDE of its strong local appeal. “I think they were convinced from the outset of the uniqueness of the protagonist and her life situation, as well as her unique relationship with her mother, which unfolds in the tension between filial piety and tiger mothering within the contemporary context of a mixed-race family.”
“At the same time, the film deals with universal themes that many of us can relate to, such as the search for independence, migration and globalisation, identity and the attempt to preserve real moments in an increasingly staged world. I am sure that this combination will also grab the audience, as Joyce will bring a great energy to the screen, especially when she dances.”
Speaking to BDE in April 2025, Zobrist underlined the resilience required, over a number of years, to bring a project such as Sweet Belonging to fruition.
“I see the strengths or the role of the production here mainly as an important counterpart for the director, on the one hand to discuss the material shot with regard to the story to be told, to plan the next steps, but above all [in maintaining] energy and focus over the [past] four-year production period,” he signs off.
