Neutre

Switzerland, May 2001
FILM, Fiction, 90 min.

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directed by: Xavier Ruiz
Status: In distribution

In today's Switzerland an army lieutenant takes six of his men on a reconnaissance mission, just a few days before the end of their annual tour of duty. Due to a blunder the unfortunate party loses its way and the Swiss soldiers find themselves on French territory. The lieutenant is then faced with a real dilemma. To return to Switzerland via the nearest customs point means accepting the consequences of having violated Swiss law and being automatically categorised as a deserter for having crossed the national boundary with an assault rifle. But to cross back illegally through the forest on foreign soil is also a course fraught with danger. Each of the soldiers has his own reason for preferring the second of these solutions. Finally the lieutenant, guided purely by his own personal ambition, comes to the same conclusion as his men. Although the decision seems purely abstract at the time, in making it the soldiers condemn themselves to enacting a very real tragedy that puts each man in the section to the test and brings them inexorably to a point of no return. As the barriers between soldiers and civilians collapse the men discover their vulnerability.