Lucky Jack - Three Attempts to Stop Smoking

Filmmaker Peter Liechti has been smoking for 30 years. This film is an account of his attempts to finally quit, once and for all. But it is also a tragicomic cinematographic essay on Swiss society and a smoker/ex-smoker’s inner struggles. Three times, Liechti sets out on long treks, equipped only with a backpack, hiking boots, diary, video camera and – an attitude. His first destination is St. Gallen, the city where he was born and raised, and where he smoked his first cigarette. Along the way, he has memorable encounters with the old and the young. He shares his observations of landscape, the city and passers-by with us, the spectator. We hear his occasionally dark or ironic reflections on the happenstance that crosses his path. Again and again, the craving for nicotine rears its ugly head. He tries to erase the temptation of a cigarette, but no matter how far he walks, it keeps pursuing him. It is only among the breathtaking Appenzell mountains, where he experiences a few pleasant moments with people and pigs, that Liechti realises he is temporarily free of life’s obsessions.