About the film

Fifty children of mountain farmers, six miles of walking to school, a childhood in the heart of Switzerland. We accompany the children early in the morning, plodding through deep snow to the village school, back to the farms in the afternoon, where every child has its chores. At an early age the youngest generation is initiated to the livelihood of mountain farming.

The story takes us from farm to farm and introduces us to an isolated, but also sheltered life. Through the eyes of the children we experience closely what it means if suddenly a wolf turns up or a hawk gets the chickens or how the children face the inclement whims of the weather.

For 365 days the director and writer Alice Schmid accompanied the mountain children of the municipality of Romoos with her camera in the craggy, wild landscape around Mount Napf, to the mythical chasm of Aenziloch, where according to legend thunder is created and demons are dwelling to the present day. She created powerful images of the annual cycle in the “Wild West” of Lucerne.