Albert grew up on an isolated mountain farm in the middle of nowhere in the Alps. Although he’s already in his 30ies, his omnipresent mother Marianne still pulls the strings in his life. Not intentionally and only because of his mothers pressure, Albert went to live in the nearby valley to make his living in a marble quarry. Marianne wants to protect him from the poor and lonesome life on the mountain and is even willing to denounce their bonds to the tradition of the farm, that has existed over centuries. Like an abandoned animal that keeps coming back to its territory, the introverted farmers son keeps sneaking back to the mountain as often as possible. When his father dies accidentally whilst repairing the roof, Marianne fears, that Albert will take over the role of his father and return to the farm. Instead, she decides to hide the death from Albert and the outside world - and buries his corpse on the mountain.

The archaic world of the last remaining isolated mountain farms in the Alps is slowly disappearing, but the heritage of its loneliness and its roughness has marked the inhabitants of the region. "The Eremites" tries to show the ponderous communication between the mountain people and their difficulty to pronounce their own anxieties, dreams and desires. Stuck between a loaded past and an uncertain future, the characters of the film are trying to find their own way to move forward, but in such a hostile environment, surrounded by an imposing and dominant nature, every decision can become existential. With no big words the film tries to visualize the fragile interior of those characters.

Ronny Trocker was born in Bolzano (Italy) and grew up in a small mountain village in the Italian Alps. After his studies at the Universidad del Cine in Argentina and Le Fresnoy in France, he’s currently based in Brussels. His range of works includes experimental and narrative shorts, as well as documentaries, shown in renowned festivals all around the world (Berlinale, Rome Int. Film Festival, IFFR Rotterdam, Annecy) while his latest videoinstallation was lastly exposed at the Centquatre in Paris. “The Eremites” is his first feature film.