Soldier

Drums beat out a march in steady rhythm. Under their officers' strict gaze, soldiers assemble in the barrack yard. The Argentinian flag is raised; the sound of trumpets accompanying it on its slow ascent up the mast. With clinical precision, Manuel Abramovich portrays a young recruit on his path through military training, his transformation from youth to young adult marked by doubt and conflict. In empatheic distance to its protagonist, the film reveals the tension between the rigidly defined system of the military academy and the vulnerability of the young man. Coming of age in a total institution. (Berlinale)