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Sri Lankan artist Deneth Piumakshi Veda Arachchige encounters a human-sized doll in a Basel museum that is supposed to represent one of her ancestors.
Keystone
In summer 2024, 42 human remains from Basel museum collections were returned to their home country of Sri Lanka. The documentary "Elephants & Squirrels" accompanied an artist from Sri Lanka on her restitution mission.
In the summer of 2024, Conradin Cramer, President of the Basel Government, signed a restitution agreement at Basel City Hall in the presence of a delegation from the indigenous Veddah or Adivasi group from the island nation of Sri Lanka. This concerned 42 human bones packed in crates as well as almost 50 objects that had been smuggled to Basel from what was then Ceylon in the 19th century.
The documentary "Elephants & Squirrels" by Basel filmmaker and photographer Gregor Brändli follows the story of how the bones and objects ended up in Basel and how they finally found their way back to their place of origin from the perspective of an artist from Sri Lanka.
The film will be shown for the first time in Switzerland on Saturday at the Solothurn Film Festival.
23.01.2026, 14:42
