Zu Fuss Nach Santiago de Compostela

He is someone in a hurry to leave, to get going. From his village, Degen, in the Grisons, to Spain. He is not called Hape Kerkeling (and has no best-seller to sell), but he has the same objective: to walk to the St. James of Compostela cathedral. Roman Weishaupt, a Swiss from the Grisons who has just finished his training as a drama teacher, has a 2,300 kilometres journey to reach his destination. It is not for religious reasons that this Rhaeto-Romance speaker has taken the road to St. James, currently a highly popular attraction. He is doing it purely for pleasure, and he walks westwards through the Valais and Suisse Romande. He has a lot of time for philosophising, meditation, contemplation, and new experiences. But why inflict such a thing on oneself? Blistered feet, having to find an inn every day, this particular form of religious tourism? Combining both reflexion and reality, Bruno Moll's film describes a personal rite of passage that both stimulates and gently draws the viewer in. He recounts hilarious encounters with bedbugs and inn-keepers, pilgrims, the everyday frustrations, joys and sorrows that our pedestrian Weishaupt and the director Moll - who accompanied his protagonist over 30 of the 80 days of his journey-have filmed, often in close-up. The "rambling" images succeed one another, inducing relaxation and meditation, matching the rhythm of the pilgrims. The film leaves the viewer time to watch, reflect and experience. A gentle and mellow journey, far removed from agitation, idle chatter and superficiality.