There must have been a feeling of coming home for director Mateo Ybarra and producer Madeline Robert when they showed footage from their new project Small Talk in VdR’s ‘Swiss Films Previews’ section earlier this week. After all, both Robert and Ybarra have very close relations with Visions Du Réel. Robert still works as an artistic advisor and pitch trainer for the festival’s industry strand and is on the selection committee. Ybarra was industry manager from 2019-2025 and likewise continues to be part of the selection committee.
“We both met while working for the VdR industry office…basically, that’s how we started to work together,” they say.
Geneva-based Ybarra has already directed or co-directed several films that have screened at international festivals, among them Lux, Over Our Hills and Summer Camp. Now, he has turned his attention toward the mysterious world of a Swiss finishing school – a place where women come to learn those last lessons in etiquette that will enable them to thrive in high society.
Small Talk is produced through Artifice, Ybarra’s company, and has been fully financed in Switzerland with support from, among others, Suissimage and broadcaster RTS.
In the film, a 35 year old woman called ‘Charlie’ enrols at Villa Pierrefeu, Switzerland’s only remaining ‘finishing school,” where a six week course costs 30,000 Swiss francs. ‘Charlie’ is, in fact, played by actress-director Hélène Bares (whose own film Evy & Moi played at Visions Du Réel in 2024).
“She went through the six-week course for real, from the very beginning,” Ybarra says of his lead.
Small Talk has been percolating for a while. Ybarra first approached the school in 2020. He had been told about it by a friend and was immediately curious. Swiss documentary makers often go abroad in search of subjects but he realised that there were fascinating storylines within Switzerland itself – and this was one of them.
Six years ago, the school wouldn’t allow him in to film because of the pandemic. However, when he visited the school a few years later to discuss the project, they eventually came round. Ybarra was told he could go ahead as long as the students, who were paying hefty fees, accepted the film crew being there. Nearly all of them did. Four were reluctant but, as the courses are taught in small groups, it was still possible to film.
Villa Pierrefeu has been in existence for 70 years. It is run by the formidable Madame Neri, whose mother founded the establishment. She herself is in her 80s.
It would have been very easy to satirise the school for its anachronistic attitudes toward gender and class, or to mock the courses it teaches on such subjects as ‘the art of conversation,’ ‘household management’ or the ‘art of dining.’ That was never Ybarra’s intention.
“For me, it was really important to be as transparent as possible and to open a dialogue,” the director insists. He may not share the school’s values but he was determined to treat his subjects with respect. “To make fun of people or to be condescending was not of interest to me,” he adds. Instead, the aim was to investigate just what made the school tick.
The filmmakers told the other students that ‘Charlie’ was an actress but made it clear she was attending the school for real.
“They were really attracted to her character…they were quite happy to participate in the project,” Ybarra says.
In the past, the women students at Swiss finishing schools tended to be young, between 19 and 25. They were essentially learning how to be “good housewives” for rich, powerful men. Now, the intake is any age from 19 to 65. The emphasis, the director explains, is “on giving the tools to the women in order for them to differentiate themselves from men in the professional environment.”
They’re still learning how to behave in “high society” but, at the same time, they’re being guided on how to thrive in the international business world.
One challenge the women are set is hosting an “everyday lunch.” It’s not as easy as it might appear. They have to deal with their guests and with the hired help while ensuring everything running smoothly.
“There is something that is very strong about sisterhood,” Robert observes of the camaraderie that springs up between the students. “Many women feel maybe lonely in their own bubbles and in their privileged lives. It [finishing school] is also a place where they can meet and share [experience] with people a little different to them.”
Far fewer European students attend than in the past. Now, the intake comes from North America, China, India or elsewhere. Another trend is that middle-class women enrol in greater numbers because they want to learn the hidden codes of upper-class life. Students get diplomas. The courses aren’t competitive but the women are expected to work hard.
Ybarra was faced with various formal challenges among them the fact that he was often filming in “tiny spaces.” The villa was full of small rooms. The director therefore had to work out just where to put his camera.
It was a tough shoot. Ybarra was watching footage one day and then having to write and prepare for the next. This was an “intense” experience for Hélène Bares too. When she arrived at the school, she felt she was simply playing a character but she soon found that all the other students were relating to her as a real person. It was hard work too – although she did eventually get her certificate.
In Nyon this week, the filmmakers have been looking for distributors. The documentary may have been co-financed by television but they are convinced it has theatrical potential. Ybarra talks of the “subtle interweaving” of what we learn from the students and what we see of Charlie’s own experiences.
“And we think the film has a very international potential,” Robert says.
All being well, the documentary will be ready for the autumn festivals – and a sales agent is expected to be appointed in the coming weeks.
At VdR, the filmmakers showed the first eight minutes of the film. That, they felt, was a way of whetting the audience’s appetite and making viewers ask “what happens next?”
Small Talk hadn’t been pitched at other events. One audience member in Nyon said “it’s great to discover this secret project.” Ybarra was happy to be back at VdR in front of a friendly crowd. “Presenting it in a family environment, it was not that much of a stress…”
