The adjective “shameless” was among those most frequently invoked by film critics commenting on the Swiss journalist Thomas Haemmerli’s award-winning documentary Sieben Mulden und eine Leiche (Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse, 2007), which was released three years after his mother’s unexpected death. Back in March 2004, amid preparations for the celebration of his fortieth birthday, he had received a phone call from the Swiss criminal police: his mother’s body had been found in a state of advanced decay in her rental house on Bergstrasse, part of Zurich’s posh Zürichberg neighborhood. Visiting the site following police removal of her remains, Thomas was shocked at what he found. For years previously, his mother had not permitted anyone to enter, although she continued to interact with friends outside her home and lead a busy social life. Unbeknownst to anyone, the household had become crammed to the ceilings with boxes and bags of hoarded belongings—obsolescent consumer gadgets, fashion accessories, endless pairs of shoes, saved newspaper clippings, paper documents, and diverse memorabilia accumulated over the decades. Confronted with a household of clutter and the occasional overlooked bag of rotting garbage, Thomas and his brother Erik were left with no recourse but to radically clear out the place, which needed to be returned in good order to the original property owner. During a month of concerted cleaning and sorting, which Thomas simultaneously documented with his camera, they filled no less than seven dumpsters. Amid the junk, they found photos of their grandparents that dated back to the 1880s, family films from as early as the 1930s, and diverse legal documents.

Out of this avowedly unusual postmortem excavation emerged not only a relatively clean house, but also Thomas Haemmerli’s idiosyncratic documentary, summated thusly in the press kit: “Gradually they piece together a strange and unique family saga, in which baronesses and counts, Latin lovers and Nazi officers play a role, and even the young Kofi Annan makes an appearance. A fast-paced and surprisingly funny story about an unusual legacy.”