A historic Swiss legal case that is not just history but, too often, also present is the topic of German-Swiss director Maria Brendle’s powerful debut feature film Frieda’s Case (Friedas Fall). The 1904 murder trial of young seamstress Frieda Keller may have taken place in St. Gallen, Switzerland and may, despite its major impact, not be widely known. But Brendle took it on as a vehicle to tell a more global story of female emancipation, empowerment, and rights.
“It is a story…