Shantiland

Shantiland tells of the inner turmoil of a young spiritual master who, in the midst of a perverted, hyper-capitalist society, struggles to live up to his father’s expectations and successfully run the company he founded, Shanti Enterprise.

Unhappy in the role of the mendacious commercial guru imposed on him, unconscious inclinations and recurring visions increasingly urge him to escape from it all. In his careless behaviour and longing for a paradisiacal original state, reality and delusion gradually begin to intermingle. The supposed search for truthfulness increasingly turns out to be a nasty bad trip.

With Shantiland, Sandro Ramseier has not only created a satire on the insatiable, late-capitalist consumer society and its thirst for transcendence, but also a psychedelic rollercoaster ride into the unconscious – a Freudian encounter with human drives and fears. A neon-coloured sensory overload full of details and allusions. The clash between flat, regulars’ table humour and the uncomfortable questions of existence. Neatly chaotic.