We Are The Faithful is a 2005 documentary short film produced and directed by Swiss actor Michael Koch. It premiered in October 2005. The film is entirely spoken in Baseldytsch, a Swiss German

Swiss German

Swiss German is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken in Switzerland and in some Alpine communities in Northern Italy. Occasionally, the Alemannic dialects spoken in other countries are grouped together with Swiss German as well, especially the dialects of Liechtenstein and Austrian Vorarlberg...

 dialect, but subtitles in Standard German and English are shown.

The film's subject is the stadium culture of FC Basel

FC Basel

Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel is a Swiss football club based in Basel. They are one of the most successful clubs in Swiss football, having won the Swiss Super League 14 times, the third most for any Swiss club. They were most successful in the late 1960s and 1970s, winning the...

 supporters during a game (FC Basel vs FC Zürich) in 2005 at the St. Jakob-Park

St. Jakob-Park

' is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity was increased to 42,500 for Euro 2008, which was hosted by Switzerland...

 and the importance of the chief supporter, Tobias Haufler, cheering on the crowd.

The film was favoured by critics and has been shown at eight short film festivals, amongst them in Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...

 winning the Prix Canal+. The film also screened for a sold out crowd at the opening night screening of Rooftop Films

Rooftop Films

Rooftop Films is a non-profit film organization based in Gowanus, Brooklyn. They are best known for their Rooftop Films Summer Series, a screening series/film festival that runs from June through September every year and consists of as many as 47 outdoor screenings of new, independent short and...

 2007 Summer Series and was later chosen to be a part of the "Doc Shots" program, a collection of the best short non-fiction films from Rooftop's 2007 Summer Series. Various TV stations like ARTE

Arte

Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...

, Canal+

Canal+

Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted...

 and SF

SF

SF may refer to:* San Francisco, California, United States* Science fiction-Sports:* Small forward, a position in basketball* Stade Français, a French rugby union team based in Paris* Superleague Formula, a motorsport racing series...

 were interested in buying the rights to broadcast, and ARD

ARD (broadcaster)

ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...

 even planned to broadcast the film during the 2006 FIFA World Cup

2006 FIFA World Cup

The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six...

in Germany.

The film is heavily disputed amongst supporters of FC Basel. In 2006, Haufler denied to agree on any further public presentations; as of 2007, the film can be purchased in various shops in Basel as well as in internet shops.

Awards

• International Short Film Days Winterthur (2005) - Best Swiss Short Film
• International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand (2006) - Prix Canal+