Hiver Nomade

Manuel von Stürler
Switzerland | 2012 | 90 min
Language : French
Subtitle : English

Pascal and Carole, with three donkeys and four dogs, drive 800 sheep over a distance of 600 kilometres, braving snow, main roads and fiercely defended private estates, as well as friendly villages.  The environment is extremely tough, but for the two shepherds (and for the viewer) this is a fascinating modern adventure.

Shepherds and their flocks are a favourite subject of documentary films. It is very rare, though, to find films which go beyond the picture-postcard imagery and examine the complexity of a practice such as transhumance. Manuel von Stürler, who is also a musician, has found in the times and places of this movement of humans and animals the ideal score for a composition made up of sounds and visual sequences.  His protagonists, Pascal and Carole, with three donkeys and four dogs, drive 800 sheep over a distance of 600 kilometres, braving snow, main roads, villages and fiercely defended private estates.  “It is a very demanding occupation and I wanted to record the gruelling reality of moving a flock of sheep. The shepherds are constantly on the look-out, and there is little respite. Driving a flock of 800 animals along a three-metre-wide trail with sown fields on either side that must not be trampled on is certainly not a job for any Tom, Dick or Harry” (MVS).

Luciano Barisone

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