Locarno review: The Uniformed (2025)
Pardi di Domani
International Competition
One of the common misconceptions regarding the armed forces is the association with war. Truth to be told, armies have been founded to fight wars at home and abroad (“defending the country” is a euphemism for that), but in times of peace, armies serve other purposes and many of them. That is certainly the case with the German Armed Forces, whose one unit, and from it one particular soldier, stands at the centre of Timon Ott’s short film The Uniformed, which premieres at the Pardi di domani section of Locarno.
Our narrator (Antonis Antoniadis), about whom we get to know nothing outside the army context, serves in the medical corps and wants to be a pharmacist. For that, he is prepared to endure training, endless and seemingly senseless marches, to follow the guidelines and rise up the ranks. He can do that, but some of his comrades, including his roommate Frank, cannot. So, maybe the secondary associations to the term “the army” are more fitting here: routine, structure, hierarchy… All of that might nevertheless feel soul-crushing to some, but others might thrive in such an environment.
The Uniformed serves as a portrait of both a massive, rigid system and an individual who found himself inside it. Although it is scripted, narrated and classified as a work of fiction, it pretty much plays out as an observational documentary. Rafael Kuhn varies distances in his cinematography and even manages to find some poetry on behalf of the filmmaker, even in most of the mundane things, like repeating routines, or ´bad weather. However, the predominant feeling is a certain cold detachment, further underlined by the editing of the filmmaker himself and Vladimir Vulević. It might be a test of endurance for the protagonist, but to the viewer, it offers a glimpse into his world.
Original title: Die Uniformierten
Year: 2025
Runtime: 16’ 45’’
Country: Germany
Language: German
Directed by: Timon Ott
Written by: Timon Ott
With: Antonis Antoniadis, Soldiers of the German Armed Forces
Narrated by: Antonis Antoniadis
Cinematography by: Rafael Kuhn
Editing by: Timon Ott, Vladimir Vulević
Sound design by: Ángeles López
Sound by: Patrick Dadaczyński
Produced by: Timon Ott, Ricardo Guzmán Bausch
Production company: Einbaum Film
Sales by: Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg
Distribution by: Gargantua
