At the Berlin International Film Festival, Dominik Locher premiered his documentary *Enjoy Your Stay*, a stark portrait of undocumented workers who keep Switzerland's banks, hotels and farms running. The film follows a night‑shift kitchen assistant in Zurich as she wipes a stainless‑steel counter under the buzz of fluorescent tubes, her breath visible in the cool air. Locher lets the camera linger on the quiet rustle of aprons and the distant hum of a subway train, reminding viewers that the country's wealth is built on bodies that remain invisible.
The film's unflinching portrait of undocumented labor
Locher frames the workers' stories against Switzerland's postcard image of pristine alps and punctual trains, exposing a structural tension between economic efficiency and legal protection. The documentary reframes the national myth: rather than a pristine, self‑sufficient enclave, the country is a complex machine powered by people who exist in legal shadows.
A moment of quiet resistance
In one scene, a migrant gardener pauses before signing a temporary contract, his hand hovering over the pen as the wind rattles the metal fence. That hesitation captures a psychological tension—hope for stability colliding with the fear of exploitation. It is a small, human decision that illustrates how personal agency is constantly negotiated in a system that values profit over personhood.
This matters because the hidden workforce sustains a national myth that excludes the people who make it possible, and acknowledging them is a prerequisite for any genuine social reckoning.
Locher's film invites a broader conversation about how wealth is measured, urging societies to count the labor that remains unseen.
In the end, the documentary reminds us that every polished surface rests on hands that work in the shadows.
