Duonna Marcella

(Mrs. Marcella)
by Urs Frey
24’, Svizzera, 2001

Marcella Maier has seen her town, St. Moritz, transform from a small hamlet of farmers to a small city invaded by tourism. She remembers when she was still a child, and attended an elementary school class with 62 students. She remembers when, in 1941, she was called to help the Red Cross during the war. And she also remembers the 1948 Olympic Games, which transformed her home town forever. Her life has nothing extraordinary, and for this reason it is extraordinary. Her passion since childhood, which now shares space with her role as a grandmother, is writing. “Writing with a computer is a joy. In the morning I look at it and say: what should we do together today? Something interesting?”