Toronto International Film Festival 2024, Vancouver International Film Festival 2024
Best Canadian Feature Film Award, Toronto International Film Festival 2024
Following a medical wake-up call, Montréal copywriter Mathyas Lefebure abandons his life in Canada to reinvent himself as a sheep herder in the French Alps, despite knowing literally nothing about the centuries-old craft. Ever the romantic, he is clouded by bucolic visions and dreams of writing a book in untroubled pastoral repose. What he finds is very different: the brutal life-and-death realities of sheep farming and the viciousness and cruelty of isolated men. After a rough start, he’s joined by Élise, a civil servant tempted by his stories of pastoral life, and together they commit to a summer on the mountainside. Just the two of them. And one border collie. And 800 sheep. Adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by Mathyas Lefebure and set in the breathtaking French Alps, Shepherds is an epic of personal growth, posing tough questions about how best to live in order to feel free.
One of the leading figures of new Quebec cinema, Sophie Deraspea fell in love with cinema during her Visual Arts studies in Austria and Literature studies at the University of Ottawa and Montreal. Her feature films and documentaries have been screened and won awards at major international festivals. Her 2019 film Antigone won Best Canadian Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was also chosen to represent Canada at the Oscars.
Pyramide International