Synopsis
The filament of a light bulb shines brightly. The secret of thisbanal and transient phenomenon is to be found in the Alps of canton Grisons, where the film reveals the giant walls of dams, underground galleries that stretch many miles, halls full of machinery, transmission towers, and so on. Monuments, to Man the Builder.
The light bulb sheds light, the radio plays music, the telephone rings: in the Grison Alps, it is obvious what is behind these banal, fleeting events. Huge abutments, kilometer-long tunnels, machine halls, and pylons all command nature—monuments to homo faber. The film is interested in the structural conditions, technical achievements, architectural gestures, and the spirit of these structures. Most were created in the economic boom of the 1950s and 1960s. What led to this euphoria and what has come of it? The film tries to answer these questions.
