
Mathyas (Félix-Antoine Duval) abruptly quits his marketing job in Montreal, abandoning his urban life for the south of France with the vague notion of becoming a shepherd -– all without knowing a single thing about this ancient profession. 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. Mathyas confronts a number of harrowing trials, including the perilous power of nature, along with the harsh economics of industrialized farming and the effects of climate change.
Adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel by Mathyas Lefebure and set in the breathtaking French Alps, Sophie Deraspe’s film feels both elemental and intimate, evoking the rhythms of land and nature. Shepherds is an epic of personal growth, posing questions about how best to live in order to feel free.
Community Partner
Félix-Antoine Duval, Solène Rigot
Canada/France
2024
In French with English subtitles
At SFU Woodwards
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Kim McCraw, Luc Déry, Élaine Hébert, Caroline Bonmarchand, Xenia Sulyma
Screenwriter
Sophie Deraspe, Mathyas Lefebure
Cinematography
Vincent Gonneville
Editor
Stéphane Lafleur
Production Design
André-Line Beauparlant
Original Music
Philippe Brault

Sophie Deraspe
Sophie Deraspe is a director from Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec who discovered her passion for film through Visual Arts in Austria and Literature studies in Ottawa and Montreal. Starting with documentaries, she made her feature debut with Missing Victor Pellerin (2006) and later Vital Signs (2009). Her documentary A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile (2015) won awards at Sundance and Hot Docs. Her film Antigone (2019) was named Best Canadian Feature at TIFF and was selected as the Canadian entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars.
Filmography: Missing Victor Pellerin (2006); Vital Signs (2009); Le loups (2014); A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile (2015); Antigone (2019)
Photo by Julie Gauthier
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
School of Rock
With not one, but two new Richard Linklater movies at VIFF this year (Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon), we thought it would be fun to revisit a choice cut from his rich back catalogue: the best Black and White movie ever made, School of Rock.
Boyhood
A dozen years in the making, Richard Linklater's masterpiece chronicles the evolution of a boy into a young man, from six to 18. It is the ultimate coming-of-age movie, and one of the most audacious cinematic feats of the decade.
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.
Godland
In the late 19th century, a Danish Lutheran priest is dispatched to a far corner of Iceland where a devout farmer has seen fit to build a church. The physical journey is arduous. His spiritual journey, more taxing still.
The Balconettes
In this flamboyant black comedy set in Marseille during a heatwave, writer-director-star Noémie Merlant and her two besties have to cover up the unpleasant evidence of a disastrous night partying with the hunk across the way.