Armand Rouiller, 80, is a mountain peasant, woodcutter, and craftsman. He handcrafts large sledges, rakes and handles for scythes, a craft he learned from his father, who learned it from his own father, and so on. Rouiller gathers timber for his sledges and rakes from the ash, maple, and linden trees in a forest he inherited from his father. He is the last craftsman in French-speaking Switzerland to build sledges and rakes in the old-time way.
"With the curiosity and enthusiasm of an entomologist, Jacqueline Veuve observed the extraordinary way he transforms pieces of wood into rakes and sledges."
"A most complete work, a precise ethnological approach and perfectly directed."
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Quality award, (Swiss Federal Office of Culture)
Golden Devil and Special Prize, Swiss Radio and TV Society (SSR)
International Alpine Film Festival, Les Diablerets, Switzerland, 1987
First prize, Stella di Gibellina, Italy, 1988
Leroi-Gourhan Award, 7th Account of Ethnographical Films, Musée de l'Homme, Paris 1988
Official Selection, Aurillac Festival, France