“I guess I’m dominant. I like giving orders,” says student Petr at his graduation exam, giving a timid smile as he compares himself to a literary character. The reality is nevertheless somewhat different. Teenager Petr heads the Slovak Recruits paramilitary group, which endeavours to “defend and preserve the nation”. He trains other young men out in the forest but, in Jan Gebert’s documentary, this “playing at soldiers” is chilling and more reminiscent of a humiliating drill. Petr’s ambitions, however, go beyond disciplining his contemporaries. The desire of irate young men to take things firmly into their own hands helps to illustrate a social atmosphere in which success comes to leaders who inveigh against artificially created enemies – under the pretext of protecting traditional values. The film was screened in the Panorama section at this year’s Berlinale.