This is the story of a Geneva family with four children who gave up everything to open a patisserie in Tokyo without knowing the industry or being able to speak Japanese.
In 2nd Life, a documentary by Swiss public television, RTS, viewers follow the Tranchellini-Martinez family – mum and dad, their seven-year-old son and their three daughters aged 13, 17 and 19 – who chose to leave Switzerland in 2019 to settle in the Japanese capital and open a pastry shop and tea room.
The eldest daughter gave up her studies and became the manager and the second-eldest became the head pastry chef. The youngest two children attended the Lycée Français International.
The film is told from the point of view of Uma, the youngest of the girls, now 18. “I didn’t realise straight away that a lot was going to rest on me,” she told 20MinutesExternal link. “It only dawned on me when we arrived in Japan and I started recording the voice-over. There was a lot of pressure, and I felt that the director and the RTS teams were counting on me. It was stressful, but it was also a great source of pride.”
Before the film went online on YouTube and was broadcast on RTS 2, Uma was understandably a little apprehensive. “You think all you have to do is be honest, but I wonder what people will think of me and my family. It’s complicated to realise that you’re not going to please everyone, even if you know that. It’s hard to accept that reality.”
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.