Un pasteur – Films – Visions du Réel

A Shepherd

Louis Hanquet
France | 2024 | 71 min
Swiss Premiere
Language : French
Subtitle : English

In the Upper Alps, far removed from the rest of the world, Félix has chosen a profession away from it all. As a young shepherd, he wanders the ridges watching over his flock. Alone in nature, at the mercy of the weather, he lives for months on end in an austere and inaccessible world. Here, the environment is harsh and the wild must be kept at arm’s length, as the unseen wolf lurks...

With his melancholic air and blond locks, Félix stands out against the harsh, rocky environment of the Ubaye valley in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region. As a young shepherd working on summer pastures, he leads a solitary life for many months at a time, out of time and away from the world. Surrounded by magnificent landscapes, seemingly clinging to the mountain peaks, he tends to his animals. His daily routine is far from restful, characterised as it is by the unending battle with his sheep, the weather and, occasionally, the prowling wolf... For this first film, Louis Hanquet joined Félix in his mountain pastures, his camera in his rucksack. His unobtrusive approach, and his way of filming that is both close yet never invasive, seem to have enabled the young shepherd to simply accept his presence. In attempting to understand what constitutes this solitude, and by capturing the invisible, he shows us how the mountain is inhabited. Félix's daily life becomes the emblem of the last possible meeting place between man and animal – the domesticated and the wild.

Madeline Robert

Un pasteur, 2024