The Oberhof is one of the farthest cottages at the end of Val d’Ultimo. The Schwienbacher family has lived there for centuries and they are named “the Oberhofers” after the cottage. Every year at the end of June, the Oberhofers take up their scythe, rake and household belongings and move from their cottage in the valley up to their hut in the mountain pasture. Up there at 2,000 metres they scythe the stony meadow with some difficulty. They have always scythed the meadow believing that it is important to follow tradition even if is not economically profitable. Luis, one of the Oberhofers brothers says “we scythe it also because we love our land”. The film deals with the hay scything and the patient and finicky hay harvest, as well as showing the tools that the Oberhofers made themselves. It shows the harvest that lasts until winter when, loaded on sledges, the hay is taken along a steep snowy path down to their cottage in the valley.
Director
Josef Schwellensattl
He was born in Ultimo in the province of Bolzano in 1954. He graduated at the School of Art of Ortisei in Val Gardena. In 1975 he moved to Munich where he attended the Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen, where he took his degree in 1981. Since then he has worked as a writer and director, mainly for the Bayerisches Fernsehen, in about seventy documentaries including: Der harte Weg zum weissen Stein, Der Kreuzgang der Ladiner, Tonino Guerra-Kaffee der Schwebt, Im Ultental, Ein Besuch daheim, Juval oder alles Liebe Reinhold, Die Brenta e Die Gletscher des Adamello. Das Kalb Iin der Kuh und das Korn in der Kist. Ein Bergbauernjahr im Ultental participated in TrentoFilmfestival in 2007.