Over Our Hills

synopsis

Switzerland is one of the few European countries that still has mandatory military service. This film provides a glimpse behind the walls of the barracks, where soldiers participate in the required drills and exercises, but also find ways in which to alleviate boredom. We watch young recruits during daily activities: eating, cleaning, and video conversations with the surrounding world. However, the montage also includes the vlogs of men who have already completed their military training and share their experiences, anecdotes, and frustrations over the internet. In this way, the problematic aspects of a militarized society appear in between entertaining excerpts from military life.

“The people who shared the room with me would wail / yo, I don’t want to always hear hip hop first thing in the morning / I said, I don’t care, I have to destroy these bad feelings from the military.”

---
Source: Rap by a soldier from the film Over Our Hills (28:40-28:56)

 

biography

Matteo Ybarra (* 1992) is a Swiss independent filmmaker and producer. He studied production in London and direction at the Haute École d’Art et de Design in Geneva. Since 2019, he has been the coordinator of the Visions du Réel festival. He made good use of his army training experience in the film LUX (2021), which he shot in collaboration with Raphaël Dubache.

more about film

director:	Mateo Ybarra
producer:	Mateo Ybarra
editing:	Mateo Ybarra
sound design:	Léa Célestine Bernasconi, Adrien Kessler

contact

Mateo Ybarra / Jeunes Sauvages / Rue des Savoises 15, Ženeva / Švýcarsko
+41 762240686 / mateoybarra@gmail.com