Faces, places, shadows and memories

Bernard Bovet, 94 years old, is a man who worked the land. He has a firm handshake and is a thoughtful, measured and attentive man who commands the respect of everyone in his region.

To hear this patriarch from Gruyère expressing his love for the mountains and alluding to key moments in his life means hearing fervent, fair and simple words that lightly and poetically restore the last vestiges of a traditional farming world which has gradually been vanishing, taking a large number of values with it.

This farmer, a herdsman and dairyman, is also an amateur filmmaker who captured moments of life and of sharing. He candidly talks about his love for his family and especially for the mountains of his native Gruyère region and the people who live there.

Today he lives in a home for the elderly, sharing his daily life with Jean, Annie, Victoire and many others. Great-grandmothers and greatgrandfathers who embrace life with humour, tenderness, energy and joy of living and who, despite their bodies’ frailty and sometimes sickness, still have a sharp and mischievous mind.

A story about time that goes by, old age, the weakness and strength of memories that make us laugh or cry. A film about the farewell to the mountain world and to the images we commit to film or to the recess of our mind and which one day resurface as nostalgia for an epoch.

In this edition

Film on DVD

DVD bonus: Deleted scenes / Sourires de Charmey, a film by Bernard Bovet / Previously unreleased scenes / Premiere in Bulle / Premiere in Geneva

Music CD: traditional songs