Ingrid García Jonsson
Nathalie
Overview
The discovery of the tomb of William Tell’s son in a town in the Basque Country spurs the village's cantankerous citizens to lobby for Swiss annexation.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
5 min readA Village’s Absurd Dream: The Quiet Rebellion of The Little Switzerland
I’ve always been drawn to stories about small places with big ambitions—villages that declare independence, towns that rewrite history, communities that decide, overnight, that the rules no longer apply to them. The Little Switzerland is one of those stories, a comedy about a fictional Castilian village nestled in the Basque Country that, after an archaeological fluke, decides to secede from Spain and join Switzerland.
On paper, it sounds like the setup for a farce: a bureaucratic nightmare, a cultural identity crisis, a satire of nationalism and small-town stubbornness. But what lingers isn’t the laughter (though there is some) or the absurdity (which is plentiful). It’s the quiet, almost melancholic undercurrent of a place—and a people—trying to rewrite their fate.
The film’s premise is so ripe for satire that it’s almost too easy. A village stumbles upon the tomb of William Tell’s son (yes, that William Tell), and suddenly, the logic is undeniable: if this land once belonged to Swiss legend, why shouldn’t it belong to Switzerland now? The leap from archaeological curiosity to geopolitical maneuvering is the kind of absurdity that feels both ridiculous and, in a strange way, inevitable.
It’s the kind of idea that could only take root in a place where history is malleable, where borders are more about pride than lines on a map, and where the past is something you can dig up and repurpose. Director Kepa Sojo doesn’t just play this for laughs, though. There’s a tenderness to the way he films the village itself—a place of crumbling stone, winding alleys, and faces that have seen generations come and go.
The comedy isn’t in the premise so much as in the execution: the way the villagers, led by a mix of idealists and opportunists, navigate the labyrinth of bureaucracy, diplomacy, and their own internal divisions.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsWilliam Tell's son, a Basque enclave, and a fake canton
Wikipedia is blunt about the joke. The Little Switzerland, Spanish title La pequeña Suiza, is a 2019 Spanish comedy inspired by the Treviño enclave dispute. A Castilian village stuck inside the Basque Country wants out of the map it is on. When that fails, the villagers find a tomb they say belongs to Walter Tell, son of William Tell, latestnetflix.com maintains, and try to join Switzerland instead. Netflix's logline is the same beat. The discovery of that tomb in a Basque Country town sends cantankerous citizens lobbying for Swiss annexation.,
RTVE's wrap from Nov. 27, 2018, names the village Tellería. After 700 years they want to belong to the Basque Country. The government says no. A find in the sanctuary sends them shopping for the Swiss Confederation. Wikipedia adds the film cousins. Passport to Pimlico from 1949. Welcome Mr. Marshall! From 1953. Runtime is 86 minutes. Spain theatrical date is April 26, 2019. EOne Films distributed.,
The professor who shot Álava and Switzerland
Kepa Sojo directed. RTVE calls it his second feature after El síndrome de Svensson. He shares the script with Sonia Pacios, who had worked on his shorts. Wikipedia lists a wider writing group: Alberto López, Daniel Monedero, Jelen Morales, Pacios, Sojo. The University of the Basque Country's Campusa note is the odd production detail. Sojo is an art-history professor at UPV/EHU, Goya-nominated for the 2013 short Loco con ballesta, and a specialist in Franco-era Spanish cinema and Luis García Berlanga. He filmed scenes at the Micaela Portilla research center on the Álava campus. Karra Elejalde plays Peio, an archaeologist and palaeographer who teaches in the Faculty of Letters. Maggie Civantos and Jon Plazaola play art historians who bring him the crypt find.,,
RTVE says shooting wrapped that Tuesday in late November 2018, in Llodio, Artziniega, the Ayala valley, Vitoria, and also in towns in Switzerland. Wikipedia's Álava list is Arceniega, Ayala, Llodio, and Vitoria. Nadie es perfecto produced with Basque company Kuttuna Filmak and Portuguese Stopline Films. RTVE participated. Antonio Resines has a collaboration credit next to Elejalde, Secun de la Rosa, Ingrid García-Jonsson, Enrique Villén, and Ramón Barea. Netflix still lists Plazaola, Civantos, and García-Jonsson as the three names on the U.S. Title page. Cineuropa files the ICAA support and the April 26 Spanish release.,,,
No sourced on-set feud. The gossip is the premise itself. A Treviño-shaped village, a Tell relic, a year to become a canton, and a Berlanga scholar directing the farce. Spain got it in cinemas in April 2019. Netflix later put the English title on the same 86 minutes. RTVE Play even recirculated the film years later on its Somos cine strand, which is how a modest eOne comedy keeps turning up next to new Netflix rows. TMDB keeps the original title La pequeña Suiza under movie/574374.,,
If you came looking for a salary leak or a Swiss diplomatic incident, the sourced record is smaller and funnier. A professor from Vitoria shot a passport farce in Álava, drove the unit to Switzerland for the annexation bits, and sent Elejalde to a campus office to authenticate a medieval tomb. That is the production story that exists.,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.
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