Munich-based Autentic has nabbed international rights to the award-winning Swiss docuseries “Game Over – The Fall of Credit Suisse,” Simon Helbling’s chronicle of the once mighty Swiss bank’s dramatic 2023 collapse and its takeover by rival UBS.
Written and directed by Helbling and co-penned by journalist Arthur Rutishauser, the four-part series explores the reality behind Credit Suisse’ seemingly illustrious facade: a corporate culture of high risk and greed that continued to accept huge losses as long as the bonuses kept coming in.
The series traces the development of this corporate culture from the 1970s, running like a red thread through the history of the bank and showing how the unexpected end was unavoidable.
The investigative docuseries won the best documentary award at the Giessen International Series Festival, while the feature-length version became the most successful documentary in Swiss cinemas in 2025.
Featured as key protagonists in the series are current UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti, UBS board chairman Colm Kelleher, former Credit Suisse CEO and Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann and Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter as well as other prominent figures from the international financial industry.
“Game Over – The Fall of Credit Suisse” is produced by Zurich-based Contrast Film and Swiss media group Tamedia, in co-production with Swiss Studios and Kinescope Filmproduktion.
Producers include Contrast Film’s Ivan Madeo and Anke Beining-Wellhausen, Tamedia’s Stefan Halter, Malte Probst of Swiss Studios and Kinscope’s Matthias Greving.
“This high-stakes financial triller appealing to an audience far beyond Switzerland paints a gripping picture of one of the most spectacular financial scandals in recent history,” said Mirjam Strasser, director of sales and acquisitions at Autentic, a subsidiary of the Beta Film Group.
“Told in a true-crime style as both a four‑part series and a cinematic 90‑minute feature, the documentary traces the dramatic downfall and inevitable ‘death’ of the long-established Swiss banking giant – featuring exclusive interviews and rare insider accounts. With unprecedented access and universal themes of power, greed and accountability, we’re confident this documentary will captivate global audiences.”
In making the series, Helbling sought to answer the question: “What is really the truth behind this historic collapse of Credit Suisse in 2023, one of the world’s systemically important banks? It was clear to me that no one could answer this better than the decision-makers who were themselves responsible for the decline.”
That was no easy task.
“Getting them out of their shell was a gruelling two-year task, marked by many backroom discussions and threats from lawyers, but it was also a thoroughly fascinating experience, which I was able to undertake with the investigative journalist Arthur Rutishauser, editor-in-chief of the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.”
Madeo noted that “Game Over – The Fall of Credit Suisse” is the first documentary series produced under Switzerland’s new investment obligation scheme known as Lex Netflix. The law, which went into effect in 2024, requires streaming services and foreign TV channels to invest a portion of their revenue in Swiss film production.
“This makes it the first high-end docuseries in Switzerland to be financed predominantly by private investors,” Madeo added. “So, for us at Contrast Film, this was an exciting experiment not only in terms of content and production, but also financially.”
Contrast Film’s upcoming series “Gold,” meanwhile, will be one of 16 projects at this year’s Series Mania Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.
The six-part thriller tells the story of a Swiss gold dealer who becomes entangled in the darkest corners of the global gold trade. “Gold,” produced by Stefan Eichenberger and Madeo, won its invitation to Series Mania at last month’s Berlinale Co-Pro Series event.
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