Hundesoldaten (2016)

A remote forest: a place were dogs become canine soldiers. The dogs born here, in the military dog training school of the German Army, are all supposed to be both companion and weapon for their human counterparts. The dogs are trained to act like a weapon, and the soldiers are trained to make use of it. The initial play gradually becomes drill and the artificial training setting gets closer and closer to the scenario of a real military mission. A reality that is only to well known to another protagonist: at the same time, in the same training camp, a traumatized Kosovo veteran is to be rehabilitated with the help of a therapy dog. An essayistic look at what it means to be soldierly.