The Big Trip

A weekend in August, an amateur marching band led by its President have made an appointment in the square of a small village in the Ardennes. They are 10 men aged around forty, 10 friends. They have decided to visit the "World Carnival" in Stavelot, which occurs once every ten years. The perfect opportunity to fly their flag after all. A four-day march through the woods with a compass, backpacks and instruments with shoulder straps, in rows of three behind their banner. Initially the planned hike had only one stage but exhilaration is too pleasurable and too potent that the 10 friends decide to extend it, travelling hundreds of miles through never-ending parties from the most joyous to the most gloomy. Nevertheless, over the weeks, the group gradually falls apart in this endless march. A different atmosphere begins to take over, less celebratory, more complex. The excesses are replaced by dry bread and water, nonchalance by self-awareness. At the beginning of Spring there are only three men left and the President, who's clearly elsewhere, seems to have no intention of stopping...