Love story - Swiss style

Marriages between Swiss men and Mauritian women are beginning to look like a serialised novel. Director Jean-Louis Roy and reporter José Roy clearly demonstrate this in their film that combines understanding with irony…and often acerbity. Classified ads and hearsay make the island girls dream of finding a Swiss husband. Switzerland is El Dorado, a paradise whose walls are papered with banknotes, and where comfort and security reign supreme. A fairy tale covered in ever-white snow and a mantle of cosiness, topped with delicious chocolate. A country where “all the men are hard-working, handsome, kind and above-board”. Could there be any hesitation between marrying a working man in Switzerland and jobless suitor in Mauiritus! By means of the portraits of these young Mauritian women, we discover the image of their correspondents, the “home Helveticus” whose conservative outlook, uneasiness about the feminist movement and anxiety at having to confront an emancipated women lead him to seek refuge in the myth of a submissive, traditional woman. Here the main point of interest is the revealing attitude of men towards women. On the pretext of marrying Mauritian women, the men we meet in the programme show that chauvinist attitudes are far from disappearing and there are still plenty of men around to worry women’s lib.