One of the smallest countries in Europe has the highest number of soldiers per capita. This situation is dissected in “Swiss Citizen Soldiers,” one of the six high-end documentaries that will arrive on the circuit in the coming months, and were pitched at the Swiss Films Previews at Visions du Réel, in Nyon, Switzerland.“Switzerland has 200,000 soldiers, by far the most per capita in Europe, and most of these soldiers are switching between their job and military service.
The film is sprinkled with the humor that characterizes the author’s vision. Popadić says: “It is a funny film, but also touching. The director of photography Gregory Binchedler made very cinematographic images, but also funny images. We looked a little bit for absurdity in the institution in our visual approach.”
For this project, Iacobucci visited the country nine times. “Every time, I was making more connections so there are a few progressive media outlets that allowed me to go through their archives and use some of their footage. And I also met a filmmaker who shot scenes of the protagonist when I couldn’t be there physically.”
The film aims to show “how immigration has changed Switzerland with a focus on the 60s to the 80s,” he says. “We want to go away from scandalization from foreigners and immigrants, show how it changed society and give those people a voice.” The film also listens carefully to what the mountains have to say: the natural sounds are central, and put viewers in total immersion. “We went up there at least 50 times to record the sound of the mountain. It was important for me not to cover it with human-made music or human-made sound, but to have this moments where you really get deeply inside the spirit and essence of nature.”Pianist of genius, Erroll Garner died in 1977.